"What the heck is that?" I told Gen one evening a few weeks ago, pointing at something outside our window.
I first thought that the workers outside our condo (they've been there for years, we're in Montreal after all!!!) had installed some kind of industrial-strength lighting system to be able to do an additional shift during the night. The light was blinding and filling up the entire neighborhood, just like floodlights during late-night football games do.
But then I realized the scary truth -- this was no "temporary" lighting system...
The city had just installed brand new EXTREME SUPREME-POWER SUPER-WHITE LED streetlights. (a LOT of citizens and scientists have already complained about them, and I'll take further steps to try and have them removed or changed...) (1)
The reality is that light pollution is a growing problem, and even if I take great care in keeping only warm-colored incandescent bulbs inside my home in the evening... I'm still bombarded with very disruptive light frequencies coming from the outside.
The worst type of light for human beings (and all living things) is an excess in blue light. In a 2016 interview with the Montreal Gazette, Martin Aubé, an astrophysics professor and researcher at CÉGEP de Sherbrooke explained:
"We aren't against all LEDs [...] — only against the white ones, because they contain that bluish colour. White LEDs come in a range of whites — warm, cool, bright — but all of them contain the blue that increases light pollution and has been linked to health issues.
Using white LED lights increases light pollution by three times. [...] If it continues in this direction, it is crystal clear that not only we won't see the starry sky, but our health and ecosystem will pay the price. [emphasis mine]"
How does blue light impact your health, especially at night? The main way is by disrupting your body's ability to produce melatonin, a key sleep hormone, but also a key cancer-fighting antioxidant.
And now you may start to understand why I look like THIS when I do interviews in the evening:
