LED Lighting and Human Health

Our Blue Light Environment Is Degrading Our Health

Humans evolved in an environment rich in red and infrared light.

Early man was exposed primarily to light from heat-producing sources — sun and fire.  This light was rich in red and infrared light.  As a result, many of our basic microbiological processes — metabolism, hormonal regulation, brain function — became dependent upon continuous exposure to red and infrared light.  

In the early 20th century we transitioned our evening lighting from fires, candles, and lamps to the incandescent lightbulb.  This change posed no health problems to humans because the light provided by incandescent lightbulbs contains red and infrared light.   

Recently, however, our light environment has been changing for the worse.  The increasing use of LED streetlights, headlights, and indoor lights, combined with the light emitted from our computer screens, is transforming our light environment from  nourishing red and infrared light to blue and ultraviolent light.  This problem is being compounded by the coatings being applied to office windows, which are designed to filter out infrared light. 

In this episode Scott Zimmerman, a veteran of the lighting industry, will discuss the research showing the negative health effects of the blue-dominant light environment we’re creating, and what we can do to address them.    

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Speaker Bio

Scott Zimmerman is the founder of Silas, Inc., maker of NIRA lighting.  Scott has more than 35 years of experience in the fields of lighting and displays. His innovations and inventions have been used successfully in a wide range of military and commercial products, including night vision displays, liquid crystal display backlighting designs, and lighting fixtures.

Over the past few years, Scott has been focused on quantifying the health effects of natural sunlight. His efforts led to the development of the NIRA product line with its patent pending design that reintroduces near-infrared into our homes and offices. This research, co-authored with Professor Russel Reiter, was recently published in Melatonin Research ², a peer reviewed medical journal, and featured in LED professional ³.

In response to the pandemic, Scott extended this work toward developing novel lighting and HVAC systems that suppress disease spread. He authored a peer reviewed paper on this topic that was published in the Journal of Infectious Disease and Epidemiology.