These reports of LED exposure incidents and descriptions of adverse impacts from LED lights were collected by the Soft Lights Foundation.
May, 2024
5/1/2024 – San Leandro, CA – Astigmatism
I regularly walk home from work in the evenings, which in the colder months means walking down a dimly lit street. Having poor eyesight and balance, I’m always afraid that the blinding headlights of the cars zooming down the street will cause me to stumble off the sidewalk and into the path of an oncoming car. It certainly doesn’t help that some cars have headlights bright enough to leave afterimages in my vision, the last thing I’d want to deal with when walking at night.
April, 2024
4/21/2024 – Beaverton, OR – Autism
LED flashing lights cause me to suffer severe anxiety, panic attacks, and fear.
4/21/2024 – Davis, CA – Migraine
I used to go for long walks at night in my neighborhood for exercise and as therapy for my chronic eye migraine issue. Since 2016 when the City replaced all the sodium vapor street lights with LEDs, I have not been able to walk at night due to the harsh glare and brightness of the lights. They are nothing like the old lights. Add to that all the LED house lights that have been installed since then. My neighborhood has become a no go zone. I paid mello roos taxes for years to pay for all the green spaces I can no longer use because of these lights. Some are even on all day and hurt my eyes even in the day time. My health has suffered from not being able to get my walks – weight gain, high blood pressure. And this is just a fraction of the story. I can no longer drive at night because of the intense LED car headlights in my face. I cannot go into town at night to a restaurant or store for the same reason – LED lights everywhere. I cannot travel on a train or bus for the same reason. Airports also have these lights taking the joy out of plane travel. I have to shop for my groceries online in stores like Safeway that have installed these lights nationwide. If I get exposed to these lights, I will get a ripping eye ache that lasts for weeks, a feeling that the surface of my eyeballs has been lased.
4/22/2024 – Wakefield, MI –
Sitting in the left-turn lane waiting for the light to turn green, the pickup truck in the opposing left-turn lane had a new pinpoint LED turn signal that was so bright and so focused, was like a laser pointer shooting right into my right eye. Even in broad daylight the LED was so bright and so focused like a laser pointer I had to sheild my eyes with my hand until the traffic light turned green and I completed my turn. Hours later I am still seeing spots with my right eye. Praying there is no permanent damage.
4/23/2024 – Sammamish, WA – Autism
I’m a lifelong resident of the Seattle area, and I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome in early childhood. Additionally, I have been diagnosed with depression, adjustment disorder, anxiety, attention deficit disorder (ADD), and I suspect that I might also have undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
My biggest concern, especially in the last couple of years, is the dangerously bright light-emitting diode (LED) headlights that have been proliferating on our roadways at a disturbing rate since the early 2020s. They have had deleterious impacts on my quality of life since I can no longer exercise outdoors or drive at night without fear of being exposed to excessively bright LED headlights, experiencing sensory overload, and having meltdowns as a result. Even during sunny days, if drivers leave those LED headlights on, they are still too bright and extremely unpleasant to look at; it’s particularly worse when it’s cloudy or raining. LED headlights, especially those on Teslas, are some of the worst offenders, to the extent that I can recognize a Tesla from a distance solely by its headlights.
I am an avid lifelong cyclist and ride my bike all over King County. I have visited places such as Skagit County, Whatcom County, Snohomish County, Pierce County, Vancouver Island, Point Roberts, Snoqualmie Pass, Cle Elum, Vashon Island, Whidbey Island, the Kitsap Peninsula, and San Juan Island—all by bicycle. I have also ridden on nearly every regional trail in the Seattle area as well. However, my enjoyment of this activity has been greatly diminished by the excessive glare from these LED headlights, starting in the early 2020s. I have effectively lost one of the best stress relief methods I use to cope with my mental health issues, compounding my problems even more.
I also enjoy going on walks, and they have also been impacted by these LED headlights, making it unpleasant for me. I can no longer enjoy walking outside at night, robbing me of the ability to walk during times when it’s cooling off during what are supposed to be pleasant summer evenings. Again, even during the day, I constantly encounter excessive LED radiation and glare from these LED headlights.
Earlier this winter, my neighbor was driving a rental car equipped with LED headlights, which shone into my bedroom when they returned from work in the evening. They have since returned to their regular car, which still has halogen bulbs; however, one of their halogen lights has burned out, and I’m afraid the owner might install LED headlights to replace it. Despite this, I still have LED headlights shining towards my bedroom from passing drivers since I live near a “T” intersection. This situation makes me feel unsafe in my own home, particularly during winter when daylight is limited.
The distress caused by these lights has led to hospitalization, and I feel as though I’m under house arrest because of them, causing serious mobility issues for me. I have written to ALL, and I mean ALL, of my elected officials at the state and federal level, and the lack of any adequate response has only added to my frustration and anguish.
My ultimate goal is to urge the government and policymakers to acknowledge the problems of these excessively bright LED headlights and the dangers they pose to the general public. I advocate for regulations on their brightness and for using a warmer color temperature instead of the bluish light, which disrupts circadian rhythms and makes it difficult to spot road hazards at night.
Personally, I wish to see LED headlights banned completely from our roadways in favor of tungsten filament halogen bulbs, which are less harsh and easier on the eyes. The so-called benefits of LED headlights are outweighed by the risks they pose to the general public, and for many of the reasons I have cited, they need to be completely banned from our public roadways.
I’m extremely appalled and deeply troubled by the fact that I cannot safely use public rights of way that I have paid my tax dollars for because these LED headlights have formed a discriminatory barrier and infringe on my constitutional rights to freedom of movement. I strongly urge the Food and Drug Administration to take action. I believe that these lights are a threat to national security and public health, and swift action must be taken. The current situation is completely unacceptable!
4/23/2024 – Dallas, TX –
Makes me blind and hard to see road. Especially oncoming traffic when the lights are elevated higher than me.
4/24/2024 – Mantua, NJ
Multiple incidents. I had to cancel 2 gym memberships because of bright LED lighting they installed, and theres no gym within a workable distance that doesn’t have this insane lighting. Ive cobbled together used gym equipment at home for more money than I could afford.
I cant work without special tinted glasses, or I get migraine symptoms within minutes. Even with this protection there are places I cant stand and directions I cant look because some of the LED fixtures are simply too intense and instantly painful.
I can no longer go to the local grocery store under any circumstances, its too bright, and the list of places I cant go is growing as businesses install this harsh intense LED lighting.
Shop Rite, Five Below, Giant Fitness, Planet Fitness, Pantry One, T Mobile- these are some of the places I simply cant enter with any level of protection short of a complete blackout blindfold.
4/25/2024 – Horseheads, NY – Astigmatism
I have astigmatism, which is 30% of the population of ALL ages. LED headlights and all bright white LED lights give me a wicked headache all day that pain meds don’t touch. I rented a car recently with LED headlights & I had a huge headache from the headlights reflecting off of other surfaces. So I can’t even drive a car with LED headlights. Just in the past couple of weeks, I almost was in 3 accidents while being blinded by LED headlights. I have no problem with halogen headlights. My work commute is on a 2-lane road for an hour & I need to work to live. I can’t just stay home. What kind of life is that? So I have to put my hand up to block the headlights of the line of cars going the opposite way and look at the white line. One morning when it was raining thus more reflections, I was on a slight bend and looked up just in time to see an older SUV unsafely trying to pass a huge line of cars coming right at me in my lane. They were hurrying to get back over maybe 20 feet from the nose of my car. They had aftermarket LED headlights, so it was like two big floodlights that blinded me. The 2nd time was I was approaching a roundabout and pickup truck from the opposite side had blinding LED headlights. I checked to make sure no one was coming from the left before I got there, but *poof* a car appeared out of no where and honked at me. They almost hit me. I was so distracted by being blinded by the LED headlights, I didn’t see them. And another time I was at a crosswalk and had been stopped for other pedestrians. But a car going the opposite direction had blinding LED headlights. I didn’t see the additional pedestrians until I was passing over the crosswalk. I had looked too. The pedestrian had thankfully stopped. They were partially blocked by my windshield frame too. Again, I never had these problems with halogens. LED headlights are dangerous! Explain to me how lights that are 800x brighter than halogens are not blinding other people. LED headlights are marginalizing almost 50% of the population…specifically people with disabilities that include astigmatism (30%), migraines (17% women & 6%), and seizures (4%). And we can’t forget age discrimination against seniors with cataracts. It also affects the circadian rhythm and eye health of both people and wildlife…all of them. That is why there are blue light filters on devices. Please do the right thing and ban bright white LED headlights and LED lights in general.
4/27/2024 – Coudersport, PA –
I am beyond infuriated with the use of bright white LED lights, I’m beyond frustrated with the searing eye pain that LED lights procure, I am beyond infuriated with the intense migraines that I suffer from when dealing with bright white LED lights. I am beyond frustrated with the amount of pain that is brought upon me due to these LED lights. They are an unnecessary monstrosity that never should have been brought into public view! They are NOT beneficial in any way, shape, or form. In fact they are detrimental to society and the environment.
4/27/2024 – Elk Grove, CA – Autism
The Ziosk portable kiosk payment system has a bright LED screen. During dinner at a Chilis restaurant, we placed the kiosk face down on the table to avoid exposure to the LED Visible Light radiation from the LED screen. At payment time, my partner inserted the credit card for processing. At the completion of the processing, a large white LED light on the side of the kiosk suddenly irradiated me with white LED Visible Light radiation.
Due to the intensity of the white light, everything around me became black, except for the overwhelming feeling of bright white light. I felt disconnected from reality and as if I had entered a nightmare dream. I believe that I was partially unconscious. As I began to recover consciousness, I thought that perhaps I was staring at the LED flash on a cell phone, but that this was much more powerful. Then, as I became more aware of my surroundings, I realized that that the white light was from a large, white LED from the side of the Ziosk device.
I felt nauseous, so I fell to my stomach and tried to vomit, but I only ended up coughing. I then felt overwhelming anxiety and panic and went to the kitchen, demanding accommodation. A staff person then began yelling at me. I ran outside screaming. I continued to try to vomit, but only spit came out. At some point, both of my hands went numb and tingly.
The police were called. I dialed 911 to tell them not to turn on their LED flashing lights, but they had the red and blue flashing lights on, which further debilitated me.
4/27/2024 – Izhevsk, Russia – Other
I cannot stand the LED headlights. It all started about 4 years ago when the amount of cars with LED headlights started to become noticeable. I understood at that time that I couldn’t look at these lights because my mind goes sick, mye eyes begin immediately to get irritated to a very considerable degree that it really hurts, my muscles are becoming stiff and I get nervous tics, that is involuntary rapid head movements. Moreover, I begin to feel some sort of panic attack. Back then the amount of cars with LED headlights in my area was around 12-16 percent and it was possible to get along. Since then, the situation only got worse. The amount of cars with very blinding and extremely piercing LED headlights nears probably already 40 percent in may area and I gave up at all staring in the oncoming traffic direction because I just cannot do it any more.
Because of a neurological condition, I was not allowed to drive a car and now it seems that it’s even for the better. I cannot even imagine how people drive nowadays with this killer light. In my country we have day running headlights as a must so the headlights are on 24/7. While there is a sunny and clear weather I can somewhat go along the road facing the opposite direction, but with a gloomy weather, rainy weather, dusk, let alone nighttime I cannot physically do this. I have to avoid major roads going either along residential areas with much less traffic or going along a pavement that runs parallel to the incoming traffic, thus I somehow can move away my head and eyes and to see what is going on on the upcoming a lane ( a lane that is further away from the pavement). When using public transport I have to sit in that part of a bus/tram that has windows on the left right from the driver seat. so that I am spared to see the upcoming lanes with the upcoming traffic.
Thanks to all this, to a huge light pollution caused by LEDs and other numerous LED lights sources sprung up recently, I am almost confined at home during nighttime because I cannot stand this light. Only warm shielded LED in moderate quantities are more or less OK for me, but unshielded LEDs over 3000 K, bright LED shop signage, LED digital billboards and LED decorative building lighting makes me have fits of very severe panic attacks. I don’t feel these attacks at all with outdoor halogen headlights and sodium/incandescent/CFL lamps or warm (2700 K and less LEDs in moderate quantities). The indoor LED lighting has less negative impact on me, though too much white indoor LED light is also uncomfortable while the indoor white fluorescent light is quite OK for me.
I am asking the US regulatory agencies to give the answer why LED light can trigger severe panic attacks while other light sources are quite alright and even uncomfortable. I am sure that I am not alone.
4/27/2024 – Tuscon, AZ –
LED headlights are having a negative impact on my driving continuously. I have good night vision, excellent reflexes, am generally quite alert at night. But I rarely drive at night because of the hazard of LED headlights. They blind me to the point where I cannot see the road AT ALL. I have very mild cataracts, and LED headlights totally make me see nothing but white. The only way I can navigate safely is to MEMORIZE the road ahead while I can still see it, and DRIVE TO THE RIGHT of the oncoming car. If it is a road I am not familiar with, I might not be willing to drive it at all. It is too easy to be surprised by an unexpected curve when I cannot see the road. I drive prudently. I am not willing to put up with this hazard. So I do not drive at night if I can possibly help it, and this has an impact on my life, and my ability to get home safely if I end up having to stay someplace away from home longer than anticipated. People are going to do what they have to do to stay safe. The mere fact there are not more accidents is not proof that LED headlights are safe. It is only proof that people try to avoid hazards, and may not be driving at all during nighttime hours. And what kind of harm does a laser directly into the face do to the eyes any time of day? Unanswered question.
4/27/2024 – Rodeo, CA –
I drive a fairly small car. On the highway at night, I find the excessively bright LED headlamps are both disrupting and an impediment to driver safety. As cars approach from the rear on either side, their headlamps reflected in my side-view mirrors are often so dazzling that I have to hold my hand in front of the mirror to be able to safely see the road. Even with my rear-view mirror in the “night” position, the brilliance of these headlamps when behind me can be distracting and blinding.
When approaching from the opposite direction, especially on narrow roads, they present even greater threat to driver comfort and safety, often causing momentary blindness. The worst cases are often Tesla headlamps, but many newer SUVs and pickup truck headlamps exhibit similar characteristics and are very nearly as bad.
These headlamps are unnecessarily bright, producing an spectrum of light that is especially blinding. They often illuminate not only the road, but the overhead road signs and the interior of the cars ahead of them. These headlamps are both a nuisance and a hazard to other drivers. And, in recent years, it seems to be getting worse. The headlamp arms-race is rapidly getting out of control at the expense of driver safety. Car makers must be made to comply with existing headlamp regulations, and, in fact, those regulations must be amended to consider ever increasing lux levels, higher color temperatures, and broader and taller light-pattern spread.
4/28/2024 – Fareham, United Kingdom –
Comment on statement “DOE researched studies and other publications to ascertain any known impacts of LED lamps on human health and has not found any evidence concluding that LED lighting used for general lighting applications directly results in adverse health effects.”: ‘General lighting applications ‘ is not the same as directed beam applications & the FDA should recognise this situation in the case of headlights.
4/28/2024- Baltimore, MD –
I can’t for the life of me understand how this is even something I have to report.
Do none of these people drive at night or in inclement weather?
Do none of them pass billboards?
I used to love driving at night, even prefer it in some cases, but the new street lights are terrible, especially the defective ones that turn purple and create such harsh lighting I literally can’t look at it.
And the LOW beams on the new cars are more blinding than some of the old high beams!!!! I’ve flashed my lights at other drivers to alert them they’re driving with high beams on and they flash back that it’s their low beams.
Not only does it “daze” my eyes so that I see spots and can’t see the road properly for a few seconds, but it also creates harsh lighting conditions that makes it hard to discern what’s hiding in the shadows behind objects like trees and street signs.
And the blue hue of these LEDs that’s being used is also not only harmful and exhausting on the eyes but colors things weirdly so it’s harder to tell what’s what.
The car I drive still has “older” (aka not blue or insanely bright) headlights, and I used to love renting cars for longer trips but now every car I rent has those headlights which makes it an unsafe environment to drive in, and in those vehicles I have other cars flashing their lights at me to alert me I’m driving with high beams when I’m not!!!! Which again, causes a “daze” and I see spots and my sight is not clear while I’m maneuvering roads at night.
This is clearly unsafe!!!
I’m in my 30s! I don’t have other eye problems and I shouldn’t sound like a crotchety old person when talking about driving at night! It’s absurd!
In addition to all that, I’ve recently experienced billboards that switched from canvas to LED and LED signs outside of businesses that are so insanely bright you can probably see them from space. It might be necessary during the day when the ambient light is brighter, but these things need light censors and to adjust to a dimmer display during the night time. Because when I drive by it’s like someone shining a flashlight in my eyes for a minute. It’s absolutely not safe!!!!
I have a similar issue with the road crews that do construction on the highway at night. A bunch of those crews have these flood lights that are supposed to illuminate the area for them but they aim them in such a way that they blind the drivers too! Who’s “genius” idea was that!?
Either the people making these things are blind as bats anyway or they just don’t care.
4/28/2024 – Chicago, IL –
Every single day day or night I am blinded over and over again even driving short distances, I get spots and yesterday my eye was in actual physical pain as 1 car was so dam bright like the eclipse!!!! I’m collecting evidence to sue. We all should sue every driver who damages our vision and the government for allowing this!!! you CANNOT drive anymore EVER. Our Country is lost.
4/28/2024 – Hamilton, Canada – Migraine
LED headlights on numerous occasions have given such intense sharp pain in my eyes that induced migraines, forcing me to pull to the side of the road and vomit. Glare from LED headlights has blinded me on thousands of occasions. In some of those instances it has taken more than 5 seconds to regain my sight. LED headlights and taillights physically hurt my eyes when I’m in close proximity to them (I.e. stoplight) forcing me to physically block them with my hand. The glare, blindness, eye pain and migraines caused by LED headlights have been confirmed by my optometrist, Dr. Otto Lee. Among eye care professionals, LEDs are a known and documented problem in every age group. Driving at night for longer than 30 minutes has almost always resulted in me getting a migraine, which was never the case before LED headlights existed. As a result, I have to limit my nighttime driving to less than 15 minutes. This limits how much work I can do, or how much I can visit my family, especially in the winter months. I’ve had to restructure my life around LED lights.
4/28/2024 – Webster, MA – Other
Large pick up trucks as well as SUVs and other cars especially in MA., were it seems that tailgating is legal, get behind you and blind you from behind making it very difficult to see ahead of you. Same situation with vehicles approaching from the opposite direction.
4/28/2024 – Lancaster, PA – Migraine
I am a migraine suffer, and my trigger is photosensitivity, especially from intense bright lights. For the last several years auto makers have installed LED headlights and the color temperature they have chosen to use is blinding for oncoming drivers. There truly is no need for the adaptive or “moving part” of the headlight if ya warmer color temperature is programmed into the LED headlight. The extremely intense and blinding colder “blue” white light emitted from LED headlights just feet away is MORE dangerous than looking up at the sun. If focused intense cold bright white light is not dangerous why do welders use masks? It is literally the same reason and effect these OEM LED headlights have on oncoming drivers. How many people need to die before LED headlights are given a warmer light temperature? It is really not that hard. The technology already exists. Just look at the average teenager and how they use LED lights in their bedrooms. They have a small remote and they can change the color and or color temperature of the lights at their will. Thank you for your time.
4/28/2024 – Marshfield, WI – Astigmatism
LED headlights are blinding to the point where I have almost hit deer and other vehicles because I cannot see when the LED lights are coming at me
4/28/2024 – Onsted, MI – Astigmatism
I get eye pain and headaches by being exposed to 4500K or higher led lights
Whether I am driving at night or during a sunny day I am constantly shielding my eyes from led low beam headlights, running lights and brake lights. I have to adjust my side and rear view mirrors so I cannot use them to see properly to avoid being dazzled by led lights. If streetlights are on during the day and night I put my sun visors down because the leds are too bright. I drive over 1000 miles a week for my job. I dread cloudy, rainy days, dusk and night driving because of led lights. It’s like torture to my senses. I am constantly blinded at night and have been during the day as well because of led headlights. If I am walking in a parking lot on a cloudy day I have to shield my eyes because led running lights are too bright. I have asked my neighbors to shield their outdoor lights or use softer 2700K led and it has caused me civil lawsuits and many legal problems do to this simple request. I have to wear dark sunglasses inside of places that have led lighting. I never had eye pain or headaches prior to led lights. LED headlights are the most dangerous aspect of driving by far. These lights have ruined normal day and nighttime activity for me were they are present.
4/28/2024 – Milwaukee, WI –
I am blinded by the brightness of the LED lights not only at night, but during the daytime. Even from a car behind me glaring in mirrors during daylight. Making it dangerous for me to drive. My eyes cannot adjust due to the brightness. I’ve swerved off the side of the road. Had to pull over. Which is not always possible when there’s traffic behind you and traffic coming at you. This is a problem. There should be a limit on the brightness of the LED. This is such an easy thing to fix, but for some reason nothing gets done.
4/28/2024 – Ottawa, Canada – Migraine
I am very sensitive to many things, including light and sound. I loved to walk a lot at night when the lights used Halide orange/pink lights. Now that the city has been switching out the Halide lights with super bright LED white street lights my walks are much less enjoyable. It feels like I’m walking around in the day time. I don’t understand this obsession people have with lighting the world up like a giant football stadium. It’s not necessary, it’s not pleasant, it messes with your circadian rhythm. In my case, it can cause headaches and light fatigue. It also hurts our environment. Birds, animals and insects cannot follow their natural rhythms because their environment is so bright at night now. Also, while driving, I’m blinded by headlights that use these horrendous white LEDs. I hope there is an invention of filters for the lights that are currently on vehicles and that it is enforced to add the filters to the headlights. A return to a golden soft colour would be preferable. As well as adding golden/orange filters to street lights and/or a different design that mimics old styles and colours of street lights. I really hope the government begins to regulate this. It’s dangerous for the environment, people’s health and eyes as well as creating an ugly world to look upon.
4/28/2024 – Amesbury, MA –
I am blinded by these headlights, streetlights, floodlights morning and night every day. These lights are a hazard on the road and unnecessarily bright and incorrectly dispersed. This is a danger to everyone and regulations need to occur swiftly
4/28/2024 – Los Gatos, CA – Astigmatism
With the increase in use of LEDs in car headlights in addition to cars raised too high (or their headlights tilted too high), driving on the roads at night is an incredible hazard. I commonly find myself unable to ascertain details of what’s going on behind me with traffic and the position of other objects/cars when faced with these blinding lights. I have to get creative to even be able to see, and still face blind spots due to these stupidly bright lights. It makes driving dangerous and I can’t believe LED lights in headlights didn’t get banned years ago.
Every day the government allows this is increasing the likelihood of accidents, health issues from staring at these lights and just a generally worse quality of life.
4/28/2024 – Algonguin, IL – Photophobia
I can’t go out at night anymore due to the plague that is LED light pollution. It brought me solace. I can’t walk my dog or enjoy it at all anymore. I don’t see wildlife at night anymore. I love nature and it’s harder to appreciate now. I used to love driving but I can’t without immediate extreme dizziness and migraine. I can’t look outside at all when the sun starts to set. The building I work at has hideously bright LEDs that make me ill on a daily basis. I’m always squinting and adverting my eyes. ALWAYS. It took many aspects and simple pleasures of my life away and I miss them dearly. Please do something about this! I want my life back!
4/29/2024 – Irvine, CA – Photophobia
I have photophobia and photosensitivity due to multiple autoimmune conditions, and my life has changed significantly for the worse with the introduction of intense blue-white LED car headlights and the (ongoing) replacement of a large (about 16000) number of HPS lamps with LED fixtures (at correlated color temperatures of 3000 K and 4000 K) in my city (Irvine, CA).
Street lights:
Bright exposed LED street lights of any color, but particularly those above 2700 K, pose a health risk and serious disability barrier for me. Being sharp and pointed sources of high glare and discomfort, they can exacerbate my dry eye symptoms (I have Sjögren’s syndrome) and the likelihood of an autoimmune flare-up. As a SLE (lupus) sufferer, I need to keep my daytime exposure to sunlight limited. It used to be that nights were my go-to option for long strolls, a drive to the grocery or restaurant, or a chance to bask in moonlight or stars at night—something that the gentler glow of shielded HPS lamps afforded. Over the past decade or so, and particularly in 2024, most of these basic human comforts have been taken away from me. I have pleaded with city officials to undo the damage and the discriminatory barrier that street lights cause me, and despite their efforts to mitigate a small portion of the damage (I have met with a very modest degree of success) via glare shields in my immediate neighborhood, the city at night is becoming a cheap, vicious display of human sensibilities and human compassion gone awry.
Headlights:
Vehicle headlights with blue-white LED lights piercing into one’s eyes from oncoming traffic are the stuff of nightmares—poorly-angled, egregious beam patterns pretending to be “safety features.” Even five minutes’ exposure to this type of rampant glare while I drive or sit in a passenger’s seat is sufficient to bring on severe eye pain and vision disturbances, headaches that last days, and emotional distress. It is appalling that those objecting to these ill-conceived and risky fixtures are not taken more seriously.
Light pollution is a menace not just to humans but also to wildlife and foliage that suffer without shutters. Researching, designing, and implementing options that are conducive to safety and easy on the eyes must be high on the agenda, an urgent societal cause.
“So benumbed are we nowadays by electric lights that we have become utterly insensitive to the evils of excessive illumination”
― Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows
This evil is eradicable; let’s do what it takes.
4/30/2024 – Auckland, New Zealand – Migraine
LEDs cause me to suffer hemiplegic migraines of three day duration. This has resulted in partial confinement to my home, exclusion from municipal life, partial loss of employment and deterioration of health. The migraine results in blurred vision, dysaesthesia to the left side of my face and left arm
with severe occipital pain. It has resulted in loss of consciousness on multiple occasions, one of
which leading to a three part fracture to my right arm.
4/30/2024 – Swanage, England – Other
LEDs have been fitted as replacements for low pressure sodium street lights in the area where I live, which is within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and immediately adjacent to a National Nature Reserve. The CCT rating of the LEDs that have been installed here is 4000K, which results in an eerie blue-white light which I find most unpleasant. The glare from the new lights is excessive, to the extent that when I walk beneath them I have to look down at the pavement rather than looking forwards along the road, to keep the lights out of my field of view. The light spill from these lights is excessive, resulting in the blue-white glare of the lights penetrating the windows of my house, which makes the interior of my home feel unwelcoming. I find that the light penetrating my home negatively affects my sleep quality, even though I have blackout blinds on my windows (the light still penetrates around the sides). This light intrusion was never a problem when the lights were low pressure sodium, as the orange glow was quite restful and not at all disturbing.
My view across the Nature Reserve at night is now compromised by the new LED street lights, which produce an incredible amount of sky glow. My home is just 400 metres from the coast, so there is often mist or fog in this area, and these LED street lights cause the whole area to light up as the light scatters in the mist. It is exceedingly unpleasant. One of the lights is 185 metres away from my house and is over ten metres below it, yet the street light casts a bright image of my window onto my bedroom wall. It is so bright it appears as if a car is parked on the hillside with its full-beam headlights directed straight at my house.
I have been so disturbed by these lights over the past two years that I believe my current condition of ophthalmic shingles (herpes zoster ophthalmicus) was triggered by them. I have been suffering photophobia, nerve pain, a facial rash with blistering and acute inflammation of one eye because of this condition, which has resulted in the hopefully temporary loss of useful sight in that eye. Since I am otherwise fit and healthy and have had no other stress to cause this condition to appear, I firmly believe that it is a direct consequence of the installation of LED lighting outside my home.
4/30/2024 – Roseville, CA – Autism
I was standing in a room and another person’s cell phone buzzed with a message notification. The iPhone also pulsed its LED camera flash, which struck me in the eyes. I fell to my knees, breathing hard, and trying to fight off a panic attack.