Dear Editor
Re: Burnaby sets sights on model street designs, Burnaby NOW, Sept. 16.
City council is not merely experimenting with the lighting of developing areas; in fact, it just signed a contract to install LEDs in all city-owned streetlights. Research published in the Journal of Environmental Management, however, says that the wavelength of LED lighting suppresses melatonin production in the pineal gland five times more than that of traditional, orange-yellow lighting.
The hormone melatonin, of course, regulates sleep, puberty, and is a powerful anti-oxidant with disease-fighting properties. Furthermore, a study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found that LEDs contain dozens of dangerous materials, including lead and arsenic.
A bunch of bureaucrats who nearly nobody has ever heard of have decided on behalf of us all that it will be “attractive and interesting” to, among other things, introduce these harsh, glaring, white lights into our environment. How very democratic. Thanks, government!
Elias Ishak, Burnaby
