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LightAware Newsletter Summer 2018

Dear LightAware Advisors, Ambassadors and Supporters,
Thank you for your help and support. This newsletter is to let everyone know what has been happening with LightAware during the past year, and our plans for the next. We plan to send a newsletter twice a year.

LightAware wins Award from the Professional Lighting Design Convention 2017

In November, the charity won a prestigious ‘Award at Large’ at the Professional Lighting Design Convention 2017, an international gathering of leading figures in the lighting industry. We were delighted to receive this recognition, which has helped to raise the profile of the charity and to raise awareness of the issues among leading industry professionals.

Trustees Dr John Lincoln and Eleanor Levin gave a keynote speech ‘Lighting for all’ which was well received and made a lasting impression on those present.

http://lightaware.org/2017/11/lightaware-wins-prestigious-international-award/

EU EcoDesign Directive

LightAware has been actively engaged with the EU regarding the proposed changes to the Eco Design Directive 2009, which aim to further restrict the availability of different forms of lighting within the EU. The Single Lighting Regulation extends the incandescent ban to halogen lamps and much fluorescent lighting, and, in its initial draft, removed the exemption for people with photosensitivity.

LightAware is opposed to the Single Lighting Regulation. This is because it effectively leaves only LED lighting available for most uses, a disastrous situation of pain and social exclusion for those people who are unable to tolerate LED. In January 2018, LightAware submitted detailed comments on the Regulation and a proposed exemption on health grounds. In June we submitted further details on light sensitivity and the workability of our proposed exemption. This document was worked on by a large team of LightAware Trustees, Ambassadors, Advisers and Supporters and we also received advice from the office of Julie Ward MEP. Our wording for a health exemption was also included in the submission of Lighting Europe, the Europe-wide lighting industry body.

*Update* July 2018: The good news is that the Commission has adopted our exemption in the Single Lighting Regulation, though with the wording somewhat changed. This at the very least acknowledges that there are health issues with lighting. If the Single Lighting Regulation is passed, the following year will see us work with UK and European agencies to make sure that the exemption works, and that light-sensitive people can access safe incandescent lighting for their homes, workplaces etc. http://lightaware.org/2018/07/lightaware-respond-to-eu-commission-request-for-more-information/

LED Street Lighting

At our 2017 AGM, LightAware decided to focus our efforts on street lighting as the most urgent issue facing light-sensitive people. The rapid roll out of new LED street lighting is causing pain and distress to those who cannot tolerate it – it is an extreme form of social exclusion to be unable to access the streets after dark. Our LightAware statement on LED street lighting calls for a moratorium on the roll out of LEDs, a ban on exposed LED, and for proper research into the effect of LED lighting on humans and wildlife.

In January, LightAware held a very productive meeting with the UK Department of Transport. It was agreed that there was a need to review the current research on LED and health and to identify gaps in that research. LightAware was asked to produce a series of case studies detailing the effect of new street lighting on light-sensitive individuals. Many thanks to those who shared their stories. The charity supports people who are engaged with trying to stop their local council installing LED street lighting near their homes. In June 2018, we had a productive meeting with Thorn Lighting and were able to engage directly with people from the lighting industry about the problems people are facing with LED street lighting.

3rd LightAware AGM

In July 2018, we held our third AGM in Cambridge, which was attended by LightAware Trustees and Ambassadors. We had a lively discussion about the politics of lighting and set our priorities for the coming year. These are: to update and develop the LightAware website; to improve communication with LightAware supporters; to focus more on fundraising to ensure the charity is financially viable and to extend our capacity; and to continue responding to the fast-developing legislative situation regarding lighting.

LightAware’s team grows

We are delighted to have continued to expand our vital networks of ambassadors for local regions and specific conditions, and of experts in relevant fields who form our Board of Advisors and provide guidance and contacts to LightAware.

To our Board of Advisors, we welcomed eminent photodermatologist Professor John Hawk in December 2017, and lighting designer and architect Dr Karolina M. Zielinska-Dabkowska in April 2018. Both have spoken out about the changes in lighting. Karolina recently published a call to ‘Make Lighting Healthier’ in the journal Nature, in which she wrote:
“In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that the first wave of low-energy light sources is harmful.”

In April 2018, we welcomed lighting designer Nathan Savage as LightAware’s new Ambassador for Dubai. Nathan had heard of LightAware through the charity’s presence at the PLDC awards in Paris in November 2017. Nathan says:
‘I think it is the moral duty of those within the lighting industry to be aware of the issues at the heart of LightAware. I am personally a big fan of the proven safe technology of incandescent and halogen light sources, which are being banned by our governments on the grounds of energy efficiency, and in favour of a non proven ‘toxic to some’ alternative. No matter how small the group of affected individuals is, I do not believe this is acceptable’.

At the LightAware AGM in July 2018, we were delighted to add Laura Deacon to our team of Trustees. Laura has been involved in LightAware for some time as Lancaster Ambassador. Laura worked for the environmental charity Green Christian for nine years as their Information Officer. She has a Diploma in Person Centred Counselling (University of Lancaster, 2007) and offers counselling for light-sensitive people who contact the charity. As someone who is adversely affected by LED lighting, Laura feels that LightAware is important for many reasons, not least as a place where people can ask for, and receive, emotional support.

In the wider LightAware team of supporters, we now have the help of two former senior civil servants who are both adversely affected by lighting, and who have both provided the charity with invaluable advice regarding our communications with national and European politicians and civil servants.

LightAware Accessibility Card

With thanks to Jenny, our London Ambassador, LightAware has produced a wallet-sized plastic card for light-sensitive people to help them gain access to buildings and transport etc. We are sending the card to those who need it, for which we request a small donation to the charity. We have heard back from a number of people who are already finding the card very helpful in explaining their situation and moving light problems into an accessibility discourse. Light-sensitive people have used it to request the lights to be switched off in cafes, garden centres, shops and on buses and areas of ferries. Using the card also helps to raise awareness of the social exclusion issues around new lighting.
http://lightaware.org/about/lightaware-card/

Response to the Chief Medical Officer

Continuing our role as a voice for light-sensitive people in a rapidly-changing lighting environment, LightAware responds whenever possible to reports and legislation on lighting issues. In March 2018, the Chief Medical Officer for England published an independent report on the threat to health posed by pollution, including light pollution. LightAware responded with a detailed commentary on the report, welcoming the fact that government and health professionals were acknowledging light as a pollution issue, but also drawing attention to wider issues.
http://lightaware.org/2018/05/lightaware-response-to-englands-chief-medical-officers-report-on-pollution-2017/

Guidance for dealing with light sensitivity in the workplace

Accessing work is a major issue for light-sensitive people. LightAware regularly hears from people having problems with lighting in the workplace – not just at their individual workstation but in corridors, vestibules, meeting rooms and toilets. There is also the additional trouble of lighting during the journey to work, with increasing use of new lighting in public transport, car headlights and streets.

In response to a request by Access to Work, LightAware has created a fact sheet for employers seeking to accommodate light-sensitive people, with recommendations for duty of care and good practice for enabling people to continue employment. This will be included in the training packs of Access to Work Assessors. We have also produced a factsheet on access to buildings more generally in response to a request by Oxfordshire County Council.
http://lightaware.org/2018/07/lightaware-factsheet-2-accommodating-employees-with-sensitivity-to-artificial-lighting/
http://lightaware.org/2018/07/lightaware-factsheet-1-making-buildings-accessible-to-people-with-sensivitity-to-artificial-lighting/

Contact with light-sensitive people

A number of people from Britain and other European countries who are suffering problems with LED and fluorescent lighting contact the charity through our website. Recent examples include a seborrheic eczema sufferer and an autistic person who are both trying to stop their local councils installing LED street lighting in their streets; a lupus sufferer who is fighting to keep her job when the lighting in her office makes her ill; a severely light-sensitive person who can see and is made ill by flicker; and a photographer struggling to work because of pain caused by LED screens. We also receive phone calls and handwritten letters from those light-sensitive people who are unable to avail of modern technology due to their health problems. We help people where we can and engage in correspondence with local councils on their behalf.

LightAware in the Media

LightAware continues to raise public awareness of the effect of artificial lighting on health and wellbeing, by responding to media requests and proactively suggesting articles to receptive publications.

In November 2017, our work was featured in Natural Health magazine:
“The quality and quantity of light we’re exposed to has a profound effect on our bodies and minds...”
http://lightaware.org/2017/11/lightaware-featured-natural-health-magazine/

In December 2017, one of the LightAware founders told our story in the Falkirk Herald:
http://lightaware.org/2017/12/brightons-woman-advises-people-lightaware/

During 2018, the Save Stage Lighting campaign has gathered enormous momentum as lighting designers across Europe join forces with prominent figures in theatre and the arts to call for a continued exemption for tungsten lighting for stage use.
LightAware has contributed to the debate and drawn attention to the wider issues of health, lighting and social exclusion with letters from Trustees published in The Guardian and The Stage.
“LightAware would like to alert readers to the fact that this legislation goes far beyond theatre, and constitutes a crisis not just in the arts but also in health and social justice..."

Glen Johnson (Ambassador) was recently on BBC South Today News, joined by John Lincoln (Trustee) representing LightAware's Expert Opinion. Glen also featured on BBC Radio Oxford. Glen explained his migraine symptoms triggered by LED street lights in these reports and their disabling effect on his life. He also covered other topics relating to the wider issues. These news presentations were in response to the announcement that Oxfordshire County Councillors would be meeting to release money to fund another large deployment of LED street lighting Oxfordshire-wide. Councillors have now voted in favour of releasing the funding. However, Glen managed to negotiate a meeting between the council and LightAware to address the problems. This meeting will facilitate discussion on how street lighting policy can cater for the equality and health problems some people are experiencing from LED lights.

Fundraising

All this work and more is still being undertaken by a small group of hugely committed individuals, most of whom are juggling LightAware work with their own light-related health issues and the impact of these on employment prospects.

Earlier this year, LightAware supporters responded to our request for a small, regular donation and this has enabled us to fund some administrative support for a few hours each week.
Please consider supporting the charity in this way if you can.
https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/5456#/DonationDetails

As we move into a new stage of the charity, we will look ahead to sustainable fundraising sources. We welcome ideas and suggestions to ensure we can continue to expand our reach and raise awareness of how artificial lighting affects our health and wellbeing.

Thank you!

The LightAware Trustees