Hello! Today I will be talking about the detrimental health effects of light pollution and how people in Singapore may be exposed to this risks.
According to an article by Straits Times, Singapore was ranked the most light polluted country in the world with the ‘use of artificial light exceeds the level of light pollution tolerable per capita’ (Kumar, 2019). Not only that, in Singapore, we are unable to 99.5% of all the stars present in the night sky due to the immense light pollution unless with have an optical aid (Drake, 2019). Unfortunately, despite Singapore being the one of the most or the polluted light country in the world, we are also ironically replacing our current street lamps with brighter ones. By 2022, our current street lamps will be replaced light-emitting diode lights, or more commonly known as LED, as it can improve energy efficiency by 25% (Koh, 2017). However, this comes with a cost.
(Drake, 2019)
LED lights often emit blue light, which has the shortest wavelength in the visible light spectrum but also the highest in energy. Blue light is also found in the sunlight to regulate the circadian rhythm. However, when exposed to it excessively at night (due to street lights, television, laptop and phone screens), this could possibly affect our circadian rhythms. The circadian rhythm is responsible for many physiological processes that include hormone production and cell regulation (Chepesiuk, 2009). When exposed to blue light even at night, our circadian rhythms would be disrupted and this has been linked to health issues such as depression, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Scary right?
If you would like to check this light pollution map, it shows the amount of light Singapore is emitting as compared to the neighboring, I have left the link below!
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=10.72&lat=1.3434&lon=103.8565&layers=B0FFFFFTFFFFFFFFFF
In the following blogposts, I will be further mentioning the effects of light pollution and what we can do to mitigate it’s effects.
Reference:
Chepesiuk, R., 2009. Missing the Dark: Health Effects of Light Pollution. Environmental Health Perspectives, [online] 117(1). Available at: <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2627884/> [Accessed 12 October 2020].
Drake, N., 2019. Our Nights Are Getting Brighter, And Earth Is Paying The Price. [online] Nationalgeographic.com. Available at: <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/04/nights-are-getting-brighter-earth-paying-the-price-light-pollution-dark-skies/> [Accessed 12 October 2020].
Koh, V., 2017. Smarter, more energy-efficient street lamps to be installed by 2022. TODAY, [online] Available at: <https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/all-street-lamps-use-led-lights-2022-lta?cid=h3_referral_inarticlelinks_03092019_todayonline> [Accessed 12 October 2020].
Kumar, R., 2019. Time to tackle light, noise pollution. The Straits Times, [online] Available at: <https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/letters-in-print/time-to-tackle-light-noise-pollution#:~:text=a%20different%20challenge.-,In%202016%2C%20Singapore%20was%20named%20the%20country%20with%20the%20worst,in%20a%20Science%20Advances%20study.&text=Various%20studies%20have%20revealed%20that,results%20in%20more%20sleep%20disorders.> [Accessed 12 October 2020].
Featured Image:
Kopra, T., 2016. Singapore At Night | International Space Station. [image] Available at: <https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfNASA/photos/a.104959556322374/606974769454181/?type=3> [Accessed 12 October 2020].