XIV Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2022

For billions of years the Earth followed dark-light patterns created solely from the Sun. Moon and the stars. However, the ever-increasing use of artificial lights at night has been illuminating cities creating imbalances in the natural day-night patterns across the biological world. Excessive presence of artificial light in the night environment, known as light pollution, has become a major problem for human health.

Continuous urbanization and industrialization have made light pollution a problem of a global scale. Overlighting comes from a growing number of building exterior and interior lights, advertisement billboards, street lights, spirting venues and industrial facilities. According to the satellite data. Earth's artificially lit outdoor surface at night grew by 2 percent annually in brightness and area from 2012 to 2016. The rate of growth observed in the developing world was much faster than in developed countries [1, 2]. The rate of growth of light pollution is only expected to increase. As a result, according to 2016 World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness, nearly 80 percent of the global population already lives under skyglow and never experiences a natural night.

Scientists have linked artificial light at night (ALAN) to a wide range of human health problems. Exposure to artificial bright light during the nighttime suppresses melatonin secretion, a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Moreover, exposure to shorter wavelengths of light, such as blue light, disturb melatonin secretion and cause circadian phase shifts, even if the light is not bright. Consequently, it increases sleep onset latency, which is the length of time it takes one to accomplish the transition from full wakefulness to sleep [3]. Chronic exposure to ALAN results in inappropriately timed sleep and wake called circadian misalignment [4]. This may have negative effects on the psychological, cardiovascular and metabolic function.

The association between high levels of ALAN and cancer incidence, is one of the most discussed health issues in industrialized civilization. Recent studies suggest that ALAN-induced cancer risks are associated with the suppression of nocturnal melatonin production. Temporal disruptions from ALAN have been suggested to increase breast cancer risk among women in response to shift work and sleep deprivation. Nevertheless, the specific genetic mechanism linking exposure to ALAN and the development of disease is still to be understood [1, 5].

A growing concern about the devastating consequences of light pollution on human health has pushed scientists, environmentalists, homeowners, civic groups, architects and designers to search for ways to restore natural light. Advances in light technology have created lighting solutions that are meant to support human circadian rhythms. For example, some lamp designs now include blue light that aligns circadian cycles during the day and warmer shades at night. Building designers also incorporate greater flexibility in the control of the lighting systems. One such solution is transparent surfaces that allow more natural light during the winter and limit the amount of sun during the summer [1]. Households have been promoted to use blackout curtains to control the amount of light at night.

Fortunately, unlike environmental pollution, light pollution is reversible. However, that would require unified efforts from different stakeholders including medical research to better understand the mechanisms behind exposure to ALAN and cancer, measures that limit commercial use of lights at night and educational programs that raise people’s awareness about the negative impact of lights at night and the importance to maintain balanced wake-sleep patterns.

References

Source: Haim. A.. & Zubidat. A E. (2015). Artificial light at night: melatonin as a mediator between the environment and the epigenome Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 370(1667). 20140121.

Park CY. Night Light Pollution and Ocular Fatigue. J Korean Med Sci. 2018 Sep 3;33(38):e257. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2018.33.e257. PMID: 30220898; PMCID: PMC6137033.

Contín MA, Benedetto MM, Quinteros-Quintana ML, Guido ME. Light pollution: the possible consequences of excessive illumination on retina. Eye (Lond). 2016 Feb;30(2):255-63. doi: 10.1038/eye.2015.221. Epub 2015 Nov 6. PMID: 26541085; PMCID: PMC4763120.

Bullough, John. (2021). Light Pollution. International Encyclopedia of Transportation. 292-296. 10.1016/b978-0-08-102671-7.10726-2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351707686_Light_Pollution

Капцов В.А., Герасев В.Ф., Дейнего В.Н. Световое загрязнение как гигиеническая проблема // Гигиена и санитария. 2015. №7. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/svetovoe-zagryaznenie-kak-gigienicheskaya-problema