Light Pollution and Circadian Misalignment: A Healthy, Blue-Free, White Light-Emitting Diode to Avoid Chronodisruption

Amador Menéndez-Velázquez, Dolores Morales and Ana Belén García-Delgado
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Amador Menéndez-Velázquez: Photoactive Materials Research Unit, IDONIAL Technology Center, 33417 Avilés, Spain
Dolores Morales: Photoactive Materials Research Unit, IDONIAL Technology Center, 33417 Avilés, Spain
Ana Belén García-Delgado: Photoactive Materials Research Unit, IDONIAL Technology Center, 33417 Avilés, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Sunlight has participated in the development of all life forms on Earth. The micro-world and the daily rhythms of plants and animals are strongly regulated by the light–dark rhythm. Human beings have followed this pattern for thousands of years. The discovery and development of artificial light sources eliminated the workings of this physiological clock. The world’s current external environment is full of light pollution. In many electrical light bulbs used today and considered “environmentally friendly,” such as LED devices, electrical energy is converted into short-wavelength illumination that we have not experienced in the past. Such illumination effectively becomes “biological light pollution” and disrupts our pineal melatonin production. The suppression of melatonin at night alters our circadian rhythms (biological rhythms with a periodicity of 24 h). This alteration is known as chronodisruption and is associated with numerous diseases. In this article, we present a blue-free WLED (white light-emitting diode) that can avoid chronodisruption and preserve circadian rhythms. This WLED also maintains the spectral quality of light measured through parameters such as CRI (color reproduction index).

Keywords: light pollution; artificial light at night (ALAN); circadian rhythms; chronodisruption; white light-emitting diode (WLED); blue-free WLED; color reproduction index (CRI); luminescent organic materials; spectral converters (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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