Surrey reviews lighting plans after warning over LED lights

Global BC interviewed Wendy Hall, a professor in UBC’s School of Nursing, for a story on a change to street lights in Surrey.

The city said it is reviewing its current plans to replace all of its street lights with LED lights in the wake of recent concerns raised by a prominent physicians association.

Too much blue in the colour spectrum can impair vision and impair the body’s ability to produce melatonin, Hall said.

“It shines on your retina and then it transmits the light to the brain and it gives your brain the message that it’s daytime not nighttime,” Hall said. “If you’ve got artificial light that really enhances the light levels it doesn’t give your body the signal that it’s time to get ready to go to sleep.”