{"id":26923,"date":"2016-07-21T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T18:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=26923"},"modified":"2016-07-21T13:02:05","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T18:02:05","slug":"as-cities-in-oklahoma-update-streetlights-with-leds-doctors-warn-about-road-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/07\/21\/as-cities-in-oklahoma-update-streetlights-with-leds-doctors-warn-about-road-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"As Cities in Oklahoma Update Streetlights With LEDs, Doctors Warn About Road Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26931\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26931\" alt=\"Oklahoma Department of Transportation engineers are testing an LED interchange light tower in the parking lot of its Oklahoma City headquarters.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160720-led-photos029_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160720-led-photos029_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160720-led-photos029_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160720-led-photos029_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160720-led-photos029_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oklahoma Department of Transportation engineers are testing an LED interchange light tower in the parking lot of the agency&#39;s Oklahoma City headquarters.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Cities across the state are hoping to cut down their electricity and maintenance bills by updating street and highway lights with new technology. LEDs save energy and money, but doctors say the lights could have unintended health and environmental consequences.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/274730427&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<!--more-->David Glabas opens the door and squints his eyes. At the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, the laboratory is outside.<\/p><p>Glabas, the agency\u2019s assistant chief traffic engineer, cranes his neck and points to a tall tower. During daylight hours, the silver pole looks just like scores of others that light up state highway interchanges across the state. But this highway light is different.<\/p><p>\u201cWell we\u2019ve got three heads up there, and each head has got nine segments and each one of those segments has multiple LEDs inside of it,\u201d says Glabas, the agency\u2019s assistant chief traffic engineer.<\/p>\n<h3>Green light<\/h3><p>LEDs \u2014 short for light emitting diodes \u2014 are a relatively new form of lighting technology. The state agency is testing the technology because cities are asking for them. Local governments pay for the power and maintenance of highway lights once they\u2019re built, and city officials are turning to LEDs for the same reason residents and business owners are: They save money.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s so good, I don\u2019t believe it,\u201d Tom Baker, director of the Downtown Coordinating Council in Tulsa, says about the energy savings of LED street lights.<\/p><p>Last year, the council installed LEDs in three street light pilot projects in Tulsa\u2019s downtown corridor, including a mix of business and residential areas, and around the Blue Dome entertainment district.<\/p><p>On average, the new lights use 67 percent less energy, says Steve Hardt, the council&#8217;s operations manager. They\u2019re also much more durable than the standard orange-colored high-pressure sodium lights Tulsa has long used for street lighting, which Baker says slashes maintenance costs.<\/p><p>But there\u2019s a hitch.<\/p><p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of discussion about the temperature,\u201d Baker says. \u201cWe chose the 4000K.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_26935\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26935\" alt=\"Tulsa has installed LEDs in the downtown area and along a handful of highways, including a section of Interstate 244 over the Arkansas River.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160715-tulsa-led024_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160715-tulsa-led024_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160715-tulsa-led024_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160715-tulsa-led024_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/07\/20160715-tulsa-led024_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tulsa has installed LEDs in the downtown area and along a handful of highways, including a section of Interstate 244 over the Arkansas River.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Warm welcome<\/h3><p>It\u2019s confusing, but the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ies.org\/lighting\/science\/color.cfm\">color temperature<\/a> number Baker referenced is important. Smaller numbers are perceived as warmer and oranger, larger numbers are cooler and bluer. At 4,000 Kelvin, the LED street lights in downtown Tulsa appear white, but Dr. Mario Motta says they\u2019re actually too blue.<\/p><p>\u201cIf you put a spectrometer on it, the 4000K LEDs are 30 percent blue,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>Motta is a medical doctor who has studied how lighting affects human health. He\u2019s also an avid amateur astronomer who has researched the environmental effects of light pollution. Motta helped author <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ama-assn.org\/ama\/pub\/news\/news\/2016\/2016-06-14-community-guidance-street-lighting.page\">guidance recently issued<\/a> by the American Medical Association. The country\u2019s largest organization of physicians now urges cities to avoid LEDs on the blue end of the color spectrum.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s bad for human driving. It\u2019s hurtful to the eye. It actually causes pupillary constriction, so you see worse in the dark,\u201d Motta says.<\/p><p>Motta and other doctors say blue-ish light can disrupt <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/terms\/circadian_rhythm.htm\">sleep patterns<\/a>, hormone regulation and other internal biological cycles. Research also suggests blue-hued lighting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/news\/2015\/04\/blue-lights-could-prevent-bird-strikes\">affects birds<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/05\/26\/health\/led-light-bulbs-insects.html\">insects<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/myfwc.com\/research\/wildlife\/sea-turtles\/threats\/artificial-lighting\/\">turtles<\/a> and other nocturnal wildlife.<\/p><p>\u201cThey\u2019re sold as very energy efficient, eco-friendly, green because they use less electricity,\u201d Motta says. \u201cBut as soon as they\u2019re put up, the complaints start roaring in.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3><b>Cool reception<\/b><\/h3><p>LED street lights have received fierce backlash around the country, from <a href=\"http:\/\/crosscut.com\/2013\/03\/streetlights-seattle-led\/\">Seattle<\/a> to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/03\/24\/nyregion\/new-led-streetlights-shine-too-brightly-for-some-in-brooklyn.html\">Brooklyn<\/a>. The city of Davis, California, <a href=\"http:\/\/sacramento.cbslocal.com\/2014\/10\/21\/davis-will-spend-350000-to-replace-led-lights-after-neighbor-complaints\/\">paid $350,000<\/a> to replace hundreds of LEDs with warmer units residents could live with.<\/p><p>City traffic engineering manager Kurt Kraft says Tulsa has been installing the bluer-hued LEDs \u2014 in both the downtown area and a handful of new highway projects \u2014 but said officials would consider changes if new science comes in.<\/p><p>\u201cI think the consensus is more research needs to be done in looking at the longer term health effects and the exposure from street lights in particular,\u201d Kraft says.<\/p><p>The AMA\u2019s LED guidance has received pushback from industry groups, including the <a href=\"http:\/\/ies.org\/emails\/2016\/june\/ama-response.html\">Illuminating Engineering Society<\/a> and the the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, which <a href=\"http:\/\/ies.org\/emails\/2016\/june\/ama-response.html\">responded with a statement<\/a>, noting that \u201c&#8230; spectral content should be one factor in effective lighting for outdoor installations. However, a single solution is simply not appropriate for all situations.\u201d<\/p><p>The U.S. Department of Energy <a href=\"http:\/\/energy.gov\/eere\/ssl\/articles\/get-facts-led-street-lighting\">responded<\/a>, too, noting that LEDs aren\u2019t unique in emitting blue-spectrum light:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>And as the potential for undesirable effects from exposure to light at night emerges from evolving research, the implications apply to all light sources \u2013 including, but by no means limited to, LEDs. Further, these research results are often also relevant to light we receive from televisions, phones, computer displays, and other such devices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><b>Spectrum survey<\/b><\/h3><p>StateImpact surveyed several communities in Oklahoma where LED lights have been installed. Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Norman are all using units that exceed the AMA\u2019s blue light threshold. Municipal adoption of LEDs for street and highway lighting is relatively new in Oklahoma, and isn\u2019t yet widespread. Complaints and concerns from the public are minimal or nonexistent, officials say.<\/p><p>Dr. Motta hopes cities take their time. Since LEDs don\u2019t burn out like regular light bulbs, cities might not change them for 10 to 15 years \u2014 or longer.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s a decision that cities will have to live with for a very long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cities across the state are hoping to cut down their electricity and maintenance bills by updating street and highway lights with new technology. LEDs save energy and money, but doctors say the lights could have unintended health and environmental consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":26931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[672,673],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26923"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26940,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26923\/revisions\/26940"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}