LED lights could be “the new asbestos” for people exposed hours on end, leading scientists have warned.
They fear prolonged exposure to LED lighting in homes, schools, offices or hospitals could raise the risk of diabetes and other metabolic disorders.
Neuroscientist Glen Jeffery described LED technology as a “clear and present public health emergency” comparable to the toxic building material asbestos, which was widely used before its health risks were understood.
Jeffery and his University College London (UCL) colleague Bob Fosbury fear prolonged exposure to LEDs may disrupt with the way cells generate energy.
They advise people to spend more time outdoors in natural daylight every day.
A total of 22 healthy adults ages between 23 and 65 took part, with half exposed to tungsten lighting containing longer wavelengths including infrared and the other half remaining under normal LED lighting.
After two weeks, those exposed to the broader-spectrum light showed “significant” improvements in color-contrast vision, with the effect persisting for two months.
Although the study measured visual performance rather than disease or broader systemic health, Jeffery and Fosbury’s theory is supported by separate experiments involving fruit flies.
The research showed that daily exposure to short-wavelength blue light reduced measures of mitochondrial activity by about 50%.
Research in mice found animals exposed to ordinary LED lighting became less active, gained weight and developed fatty liver disease.
The wider claim that LED lighting can cause diabetes or other systemic disease in humans remains a hypothesis, with long-term studies yet to establish such a link.
But Fosbury, an honorary professor at UCL’s Institute of Ophthalmology, said: “It was not until a decade after the introduction of the LEDs that we really became aware of the problem.
“Life on earth is an antenna tuned to sunlight.
“Life has evolved to utilize the sunlight that gets through the atmosphere to its maximum extent. We call it photometabolism.
“The human body needs components of sunlight to metabolize properly. This goes back over four billion years of evolution.”
Fosbury, who previously worked for 26 years at the European Space Agency (ESA), compares the potential problem with scurvy – and describes modern indoor environments as “infrared darkness.”
He added: “The absence of infrared light in the artificial lighting environment decreases the efficiency of your mitochondria.
“You’re less able to metabolize properly, over a timescale of days, weeks, months.
“This is what’s happening to the urban population today, all living indoors.
“They are living in a state of infrared darkness.”
The researchers are now exploring ways to restore the wavelengths missing from modern indoor lighting.
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