High-intensity LED streetlights — such as those in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, and elsewhere — emit unseen blue light that can disturb sleep rhythms and possibly increase the risk of serious health conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular disease.
That’s the upshot of a new warning from the American Medical Association, which also cautioned that those light-emitting-diode lights can impair nighttime driving vision, The Washington Post reports.
Similar concerns have been raised in recent years, but the AMA report adds credence to the issue and is prompting cities and states to reevaluate the intensity of LED lights they install.
Nearly 13 percent of area/roadway lighting is now LED, according to a report prepared last year for the Department of Energy.
LEDs are 50 percent more energy-efficient than the yellow-orange high-pressure sodium lights they typically replace. They last for 15 to 20 years, instead of two to five.