Light + Health

I had the pleasure of interviewing Gary Trott, Vice President – Technology Commercialization, Acuity Brands Lighting, about filtered far UV-C disinfection for an article I wrote for the December issue of ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR.

Dr. Hiroki Ohge, Professor, Department of Infectious Diseases, Hiroshima University Hospital, and a group of researchers led by Dr. Takemasa Sakaguchi, Professor, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, have completed a research study that demonstrates that irradiation with filtered 222nm UV-C light effectively reduces SARS-CoV-2 in an in vitro experiment.

Ushio Inc. and a research group led by Dr. Ryosuke Kuroda, Chairman and Professor of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, have completed a research study that shows that irradiation of filtered 222nm UV-C light on human skin reduces bacterial counts while causing no injury. This is the first study on the safety of 222nm far UV-C light conducted on humans.

THE ATLANTIC recently published an interesting article about how the pandemic’s story revealed itself in outdoor lighting patterns.

Researchers at University College London have found that exposure to red light (670 nm) can improve vision among those aged 40+.

Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in collaboration with Ava Robotics and the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), designed a new robotic system that disinfects surfaces and neutralizes aerosol forms of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) Lighting Systems Division has endorsed the Global Lighting Association (GLA) position statement on germicidal ultraviolet irradiation. 

The Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS) recently announced that Mariana Figueiro, PhD has been appointed to lead two new programs focused on aging and on sleep and circadian research.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is investigating the impacts of working from home or quarantining indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic on individual daily light exposures, and how this may be affecting sleep quality and psychological health. In May 2020, the LRC invited people who had been staying home due to the pandemic to complete a short survey about their sleep, mood, and daily light exposure. A total of 708 people responded, which some interesting results.