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"Light pollution" is light that leaks into places it isn’t needed. This may be points around
our homes and cities that are unnecessarily lit, but it’s also unequivocally the light that
trespasses into our night sky. This non residual graffiti appears in our skies every night
and has much the same effect as our Sun when it comes to blocking stars and other
night sky objects from our view. Not only this, but with energy becoming a luxury that
is becoming ever more expensive and scarce, the waste of energy in any form is
getting an increasingly touchy subject.
Huw James looks into our waste of light and what we can do to become a light friendly
nation.
there has been campaigning against this effluence of
You may wonder how light can be a pollutant. After all, light with little consequence. With energy prices
it isn’t toxic or harmful in anyway. But it is a soaring and fossil fuels becoming ever less, energy
contaminant of our surroundings in the same way that waste is a luxury that none of us
noise is, but with a surprisingly greater effect. Light
Pollution is obtrusive light that wanders beyond the can afford. But if we’re going to stop it, we need to
point of its use. In most places, this garish light know how it occurs, what effects it has and what we
appears an orange glow that is produced by the badly can do to reduce it.
shaded street lights that litter our roads and
motorways. This orange glow has become part of our
lives, and the children of the 21st Century will grow up
never knowing any different. But the night sky,
however unchanging it seems to be, has transformed
dramatically in the last 50 years. It’s now common
place to see bright lights wandering across the sky,
and ones that flash on their path through a sky that
glows luminous with a smouldering radiance. This
“photopollution”, as its sometimes known, is purely a
pollutant that remains to be as obtrusive in its
annoyance as it is a waste of energy and capital for
businesses and homes worldwide. Since the 1980’s,
Huw James | LPWales Our Changing Skies
26/11/2010 | 1 Figure 1a: Unshielded Light Figure 1b: Well shielded light
 Light Pollution
Po – The Cause

Light pollution is an accumulation of many factors.

Since the growth of industry, it has become a
worsening problem that

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Huw James | LPWales Our Changing Skies
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 “Excessive light exposure in work
and at the home holds many
adverse affects for the individual
working or living there…“

he says “Imagine turning on all the heaters and radiators in a building, and then opening all the doors and
windows, this is similar to the way in which we let light leak out into our environment and into skies”. This careless
outpouring of light into our surroundings causes changes to wildlife behaviour. Nocturnal animals may find they
wake up later due to darkness never truly prevailing; also navigation can become a problem as migrating birds
can become disorientated by tall buildings. In these buildings, lighting effects are also causing problems.
Excessive light exposure in work and at the home holds many adverse affects for the individual working or living
there. “[O]ver-illumination or improper spectral composition of light is as follows: increased headache incidence,
worker fatigue, medically defined stress, decrease in sexual function and increase in anxiety”3.
Also, as we’ve talked about, the glare from street lights and other types of lighting can be particularly hazardous
while driving, but improper lighting can produce safety issues such as “dark spots”. We fall under the
misconception that areas with a lot of light are safer than those without. While this may be partially true, the lit
areas may be badly lit, causing glare between the lit areas and non lit areas, making it exceptionally easy for
criminals to hide in. It becomes incorrect to believe that installing more lights will lead to an increase in safety. It
is certainly better to say that properly lit areas will lead to an increase in safety.
Figure 2: Satellite view of Earth at night.
Reducing Light Pollution and Re-
designing Lights
Figure 6 is a table of some common light sources in street
lights. As we discussed earlier, Blue light and that light of
a similar wavelength causes a larger amount of light
pollution per sq.arcsecond in the sky, than an equivalent
amount of that light at a lower wavelength such as yellow
or orange. Many street lights are now High Pressure
Sodium due to its high efficiency and its ease of control
compared to its low pressure counterpart (causes less Figure 6: Comparison of Light sources used in street lights and their
efficiencies
light pollution above the horizontal).
However, the type of light source used is arbitrary if the
means in

Huw James | LPWales Our Changing Skies

Figure 1a: Unshielded Light 26/11/2010 | 3
which it is delivered is ineffective. A good example of
efficient lighting is full cut off lighting which many
governments are implementing across Britain. Full cut off
lighting fixtures, like the example in Figure 7, ensures that
the light emitted from the bulb doesn’t venture past the
horizontal, and doesn’t contribute toward sky glow as much
as street lights where the luminaires allow light to escape
side wards and upwards into the night sky.
Of course there is little you can do at home to increase the
effectiveness of council laid lights. But there are ways in
which you can reduce light pollution, save energy, and save
money all at the same time. Firstly, you can reduce the
amount of light you use in the house in two very easy ways.
The two main problems in the house are over-use and over-
lighting. Over-use is a problem that always happens, it
occurs when your children walk from room to room in the
house turning the lights on as they go (of course adults do
this too). These lights get left on even when no-one is in the
room and waste light needlessly. Over-lighting simply
means, don’t use two lights when one will do. It’s a very
simple rule to live by.
Energy saving light bulbs has been around for years, but
their effects are still widely praised as being one of the best Figure 7: Full Cut Off street lighting powered by solar energy, the
ways to save energy through light. It is unanimously thought next step in lighting our streets.

that this is correct, even though the initial cost is more than
normal bulbs, the saving in electricity more than compensates. There are evermore ways of reducing the amount
of light we squander, as easy as closing our curtains and blinds, and using lamps instead of fitted lights. Nearly all
the ways in which we can do this is merely common sense, of which the British populous has in bucket loads. Have
a look around now and ask yourself if all the lights that are on are i) needed; ii) an effective intensity; iii) energy
efficient; iv) effectively shielded and v) is the light stopped from venturing outside. If the answer to all these are
yes, then give yourself a pat on the back. If not, check out www.myspace.com/lpwales or email
lpwales@hotmail.com for more information on light pollution and ways to save the environment, save energy and
(best of all) save you money.

Huw James | LPWales Our Changing Skies

26/11/2010 | 4
1
www.eia.doe.gov/basics/energybasics101
2
www.irby.com/IrbyCircuit/Vol1No2/energysavings
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pollution