CANMORE – Artificial light is one of the most prevalent yet overlooked forms of pollution in our modern world, however a growing body of scientific research is beginning to shine a light on the harmful effects it has on wildlife and human health.
Ryan James, a local Canmore resident and undergraduate student with the University of Alberta, recently completed a literature review of 18 studies about the effects artificial light has on ecosystems at night.
His paper found there is ample evidence artificial light has an impact on both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and the effects created by light pollution, including on human health, are still poorly understood.
“Basically what’s been happening is light pollution has been increasing, but we haven’t been looking at what are the consequences,” said James, adding the introduction of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting has only exacerbated the problem.
“LED lights were introduced before anybody knew what the consequences were environmentally or health-wise, so the science is now just starting to uncover what those effects are.”
He said researchers have known for years light pollution impacts birds that use the stars to navigate at night, as well as newborn sea turtles that use the moon to reach the ocean, however more recent research has found that insects and fish are also affected.
For example, in one study researchers found artificial light changed predatory behaviour and fish habitat use at night. The most noteworthy change was that fish sought deeper habitat at night to seek protection from a perceived danger caused by the artificial light. At the same time, researchers also found an increase in nighttime predation because fish that opted to remain near the surface had more opportunity to feed on invertebrates that were attracted to the artificial light. In some cases, nighttime predation exceed daytime rates.
Other scientific studies have also found evidence linking artificial light to cancer.
“There’s lot of clear research that it increases the risk of prostate and breast cancer,” said James, explaining LED lighting creates blue light, which can have an adverse effect on our sleeping cycles.
“Species have adapted to different wavelengths of light and adapted to the regular cycles of light and darkness,” said James. “Morning light has more blue light and that’s a signal for the body to wake up and then at night the absence of blue light produces more melatonin, which is the sleep hormone. The link between the cancers is that at night when you’re resting and your melatonin levels are higher your body’s cells are able to recover and fend off cancers, but if you continually get that blue light signal, which is for the body to stay awake, then it doesn’t get that rest period.”
He said blue light doesn’t just affect humans, but can also affect people’s pets and other wildlife such as bears, wolves and elk.
“Even if you’re sleeping and light is coming through the window it can still affect you.”
FortisAlberta, which owns and maintains 100,000 streetlights in Alberta, including in Canmore, confirmed it converted the town’s streets lights from high pressure sodium (HPS) to LED technology in 2016, however it rejected any suggestion LED lighting is more hazardous.
“There is no evidence that LED streetlights impact human sleep cycles any differently than HPS streetlights that have been used for the past 30 years,” wrote Alana Antonelli, manager of corporate communications and marketing for FortisAlberta.
“When considering the effects of light at night, indoor lighting is more of a concern. The quantity of light emitted by streetlights is many times lower than that emitted by typical indoor lighting, TVs, tablets or PC screens.”
She said FortisAlberta looked at the possible impacts of LED lighting and found the public’s exposure to blue light would be “minimal,” pointing to a publication released by the U.S. Department of Energy that concluded LED products are no more hazardous than other lighting technology.
In 2016, the American Medical Association Council on Science and Public Health published a report that found long-term exposure to blue light before bed can increase the risk for several diseases.
“Although data are still emerging, some evidence supports a long-term increase in the risk for cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity from chronic sleep disruption or shiftwork and associated with exposure to brighter light sources in the evening or night,” the report stated.
“White LED streetlights are currently being marketed to cities and towns throughout the country in the name of energy efficiency and long-term cost savings, but such lights have a spectrum containing a strong spike at the wavelength that most effectively suppresses melatonin during the night. It is estimated that a ‘white’ LED lamp is at least five times more powerful in influencing circadian physiology than a high pressure sodium light based on melatonin suppression.”
In response to growing public concern, the Town of Canmore approved $20,000 in its 2019-20 capital budget to update and develop new lighting standards.
Manager of engineering Andy Esarte said the money will be used to hire a consultant to provide guidance on existing areas that residents feel are both over-lit, or under-lit, as well as inform future roadway and pathway designs.
“Brighter doesn’t necessarily mean safer,” said Esarte, acknowledging light pollution can have an impact on the environment and human health.
“We want to find an appropriate design standard that we feel is safe and comfortable with a minimal amount of light.”
He pointed to the streetlights that were installed by FortisAlberta at the roundabout at Benchlands Trail and Elk Run Boulevard in 2016 as an example of an area that is over-lit.
“We felt like the lighting levels being proposed there were excessively high and we didn’t feel like it was an appropriate level of lighting for the context of where it was located,” said Esarte.
“If you look at an arterial road in Calgary and an arterial road in Canmore, Benchlands Trail is quite a lot different than Macleod Trail in Calgary, so we had a lot of concerns about that and went back and forth with Fortis multiple times and ultimately we just didn’t have the information to comfortably accept a lower lighting standard.”
Through that experience, he said the engineering department decided it was time the municipality established its own lighting policy so FortisAlberta could accept lower lighting standards.
“I think the Town and the community are really on the same side of this discussion,” said Esarte.
“We all recognize what we’re doing right now doesn’t feel right and we want to figure out what is right, so that’s what this project is about – it’s really about working with the community and with the consultant to define what is appropriate, so we can more forward and have some consistent approaches out there.”
FortisAlberta said it follows guidelines set by the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) and follows other recommendations to ensure dark sky compliance.
“The IESNA is well-informed of industry information pertaining to LED community lighting and thoroughly reviews any new reports and makes recommendations as appropriate to preserve the health and safety of its constituencies and the general public,” wrote Antonelli.
“FortisAlberta’s top priority is the safety of its customers, employees and the public in the communities it serves, which aligns with the IESNA mandate.”
James said it was encouraging to see the municipality taking the issue of light pollution seriously and acknowledged that some lighting will always be needed for safety reasons.
“You definitely need light for intersections, but with the scientific literature there’s no definitive proof that lighting actually increases safety – they can’t link it,” said James, explaining in some circumstances LED lighting actually increases collision rates because of glare.
He said there is also very little proof that lighting public places improves public safety.
“A lot of people say crime is more of a social issue than a lighting issue,” said James, adding crimes of opportunity tend to increase when areas are well lit.
“There were some cities in the U.K. that ran out of money to run their street lights during the last recession and there were some studies that came out of that where they turned off their street lights at night and they did studies in conjunction with their police force and they found no difference in crime rates.”
He said he hopes the Town’s new guidelines will consider the growing body of research that shows light pollution is having a serious impact on the environment and human health.
“There’s lot of different mitigation options, but the main ones are reducing the light and have the light shine only where it’s needed,” said James, explaining using shield lighting or dimming lights would help.
Currently, most LED street lights produce 4,000 Kelvins, however many countries in Europe have adopted guidelines limiting streetlights to 3,000K within residential areas thereby reducing the amount of blue light that is emitted.
The American Medical Association said “strong consideration” should be given to installing LED lights that emit 3,000K or less.
“At 3000K, the human eye still perceives the light as ‘white,’ but it is slightly warmer in tone, and has about 21 per cent of its emission in the blue-appearing part of the spectrum. This emission is still very blue for the nighttime environment, but is a significant improvement over the 4000K lighting because it reduces discomfort and disability glare. Because of different coatings, the energy efficiency of 3000K lighting is only three per cent less than 4000K, but the light is more pleasing to humans and has less of an impact on wildlife.”
Beyond the health and environmental impacts caused by light pollution, James said there is also opportunity in dark sky tourism, which has become part of Jasper National Park’s draw in recent years as one of Canada’s largest dark sky preserves.
“If you shield the lights and reveal the night sky then you regain that connection that a lot of people don’t have,” said James. “The Bow Valley as a whole looks at itself as more environmentally conscious than other areas of the province and I think this is an opportunity for us to be a leader in that area.”
For more information about light pollution visit the International Dark Sky Association or the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
