Light + Health

On October 3, 2019, the International Commission on Illumination issued the second edition of its position statement on non-visual effects of light, focusing on recommending the proper light at the proper time.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) recently awarded a new 5-year grant totaling $3.8 million to Dr. Mariana Figueiro, Professor and Director at the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to investigate whether a long-term (6-month) lighting intervention designed to promote circadian entrainment will improve sleep, cognition, and memory in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which is an “at risk” or potential prodromal stage of dementia.

Based on research suggesting a correlation between building design and human health and wellness, in 2013 Delos created the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), which launched the WELL Building Standard. As of March 2019, more than 1,500 projects encompassing 315 million sq.ft. in 48 countries have been designed to WELL certification.

Using visible light from LEDs, visible light disinfection (VLD) technology is designed to provide functional illumination that is safe for humans, while containing recipes for saturated blue/violet emission that is harmful to germs. It has been commercialized by companies like Kenall Manufacturing (Indigo-Clean) and Vital Vio, Inc., which licenses to Visa Lighting, Evolution Lighting and others.

There are two important, sometimes competing, metrics regarding Humancentric Lighting: the Equivalent Melanopic Lux (EML) and Circadian Stimulus (CS). These metrics were discussed by a panel of experts convened at the National Lighting Bureau’s most recent Annual Lighting Forum.

AlconLighting.com recently published an interview with the California Lighting Technology Center’s Talieh Ghane about the interaction between light and human health.

Hospital-acquired infections are one of the top preventable illnesses in medical facilities, and a special type of LED lighting can act as a continuous disinfectant and reduce the opportunity for these infections. This new National Lighting Bureau video features a discussion between the NLB’s Randy Reid and Colleen Costello of Vital Vio and Deb Zawodny of New Star Lighting about how a portion of the white-light spectrum is being used as a disinfection tool in hospitals.

The Illuminating Engineering Society has issued a position statement, PS-12-19, responding to UL RP 24480 regarding circadian lighting.

In this week’s featured episode of the Get a Grip on Lighting podcast, hosts Greg Ehrich, LC, former President of NAILD and owner of Premier Lighting, and Michael Colligan, an entrepreneur and inventor, talk to Adam Lilien, Lighting Business Development Manager for UL, about UL’s initiative to develop a new recommended best practice for circadian lighting.