Light pollution has wide-ranging impacts on humans and nature
By Lethbridge Herald on March 30, 2023.
Sky glow is seen over downtown Lethbridge, produced by light reflecting back to the city due to cloud cover earlier this week.
Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-GuzmanAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
Have you ever wondered if there is a way to see more stars on a regular basis? Even though stars shine bright, light pollution makes it hard to see them at night.
Usually when it comes to pollution, people think of low air quality due to smoke, especially exhaust from cars. But pollution can also be found in the sky for another reason – too much light.
Light pollution, according to the Oxford dictionary, is the brightening of the sky caused by street lights and other man-made sources, which have a disruptive effect on natural cycles and inhibits the observation of stars and planets.
Dark Sky Guides president and co-founder, Keith Robinson said light pollution is becoming a big issue across the globe and many people have become aware of its impacts.
“People are becoming aware that light pollution does cause issues in everything from impacting wildlife to people’s circadian rhythm,” said Robinson.
He said that even though it is a bit different being in Waterton Lakes National Park and in urban cities when it comes to its effects on wildlife, light pollution affects people no matter where they are.
“There’s lots of research ongoing right now about the negative effects of light pollution on people that live under light polluted night skies, and whether it’s the street lights or its passing vehicle traffic next to somebody’s house, all that lighting can disrupt people’s circadian rhythm and that’s kind of the natural sleep cycle that human beings have evolved over the years,” said Robinson.
He said people would be prone to wake up when the sun rises and they would start to get tired and ready for bed once the sun sets. When the sun begins to set and the lighting is reduced or dim outside your body starts producing melatonin, which is the chemical that makes you drowsy and sleepy and signals you to start getting ready for bed.
“But if you’re constantly being exposed to this artificial light at night, the melatonin production is reduced and prevents your body from entering that state of getting ready for sleep, and then if you’re not getting a good night sleep your body is prevented from entering in that REM state of sleep, and if that REM state that your body goes in and out of over the course of the night multiple times, that’s where you really get a lot of the health benefits of getting a full night’s sleep,” said Robinson.
Brady Sherwood of the Lethbridge Astronomy Society, who also has a degree in environmental science, said light pollution becomes even more prominent in cloudy skies as they create a “lamp shade effect” reflecting the light back to the city.
“When it’s not that much cloud coverage it’s a little bit better, the glow is still there but not as prominent. If you have a lot of humidity it will reflect way more,” said Sherwood.
He said light pollution also has other negative effects on humans that are a direct result of melatonin level reduction.
“Because of the decrease in melatonin and lack of adequate sleep, people have a higher risk of contracting breast and prostate cancer,” said Sherwood.
According to the International Dark-Sky Association, brighter does not mean safer as glare from bright, unshielded light actually decreases safety.
Glare creates deep shadows, making it more difficult to see. It also shines into your eyes which constricts pupils and this in turn reduces the eyes’ ability to adapt to low-light conditions.
But just like every problem, there are ways to solve them and it all starts with something as simple as flicking a switch, according to Sherwood.
“We could prevent light pollution. First turn off lights that we don’t need on, prevent new areas from being lit, limit the intensity of the light, avoid lights that trespass into areas that are not meant to be illuminated and use light fixtures that will direct the light downwards,” said Sherwood.
Such decision to reduce light pollution was made by the Waterton Lakes Park townsite after receiving a tentative Dark Sky designation in 2017 by the International Dark-Sky Association.
Robinson said since then they tested out a variety of street light fixtures in and around the townsite.
“In 2021 they partnered with Fortis to switch out all the street light fixtures in town with Dark Sky- compliant light fixtures, which basically have a shield or cone that forces the light down towards the ground and that prevents excessive and unnecessary light from scattering above overhead and creating that sky glow you see above communities,” said Robinson.
In August 2021, Waterton-Glacier became the first certified international transboundary Dark Sky Preserve. Shortly after that, in January 2022, the Community Safety Standing Policy Committee of Lethbridge City tasked administration with providing a report on the implementation of a potential light pollution bylaw.
On April 14 of 2022, the committee accepted a report from administration as information.
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25-24
Light pollution is nothing compared to the air wave pollution. If you could see airwaves, it would be like driving in a fog!
Living in a highrise with two other highrises with 5G towers pointed at you is like getting microwaved slowly!
Nice medical conditions like tinnitus, impacting your daily life. One of those highrise buildings put up a wall around them so we couldn’t see all of them mounted on the top of their building.
All the vehicles with there driving aides that warn when something is too close, or self driven, emitting more . . .!
Light pollution is nothing!
Time to move!
i appreciate the article, and the entry from barry. light pollution is a significant concern, for health as well as quality of life issues. the city’s move to the present street lights was thoughtless, save for a good payday for whomever got lined in that dumb deal. as we know, or should, the lights emit a frequency that mimics daylight.
as for barry’s concern about energy waves, they are indeed artificially “polluting” us all. as if we were not already overly buggered, 5G is a massive intrusion on our health and well being. there is no escape, unless we stop it.
the worst of it is that those that responded so far to the herald poll are 2:1 in favour of feeling that light pollution is not an issue. gives one an idea of ignorance that legitimises our follies.
gotta wonder about the poor soul that goes so deep to neg comments – never an expressed intelligent thought, though. i suspect you have thoughts – perhaps you might one day step out of the dark and share what is on your mind.