By Bill Blakemore
ABC News.com, May 17, 2001
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/darkness_wnt010517.html
Nobody meant this to happen,
and it's having a devastating effect on our health. It turns out we need the
darkness to make our immune systems work.
Darkness for Health
Scientists have now discovered that only when it's really dark can your
body produce the hormone called melatonin. Melatonin fights diseases, including
breast and prostate cancer. "It
turns off the cancer cells from growing," says Joan Roberts, a photo
biologist. But if there's even
a little light around your bed at night, your melatonin production switches
off…
By KATY HUMAN
Scripps Howard News
Service, January 09, 2002
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=DARKSKY-HEALTH-01-09-02&cat=AN
- A bright streetlight shining through a bedroom
window may not only interrupt sleep, it may also increase the risk of cancer.
Women exposed to light at night appear to be more vulnerable to breast
cancer, according to two studies
published last year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The effect
is probably related to melatonin, a light-sensitive chemical produced in the
brain, the authors said…
by Sharon Batt.
Breast Cancer Action, Newsletter #61–September/October 2000
http://www.bcaction.org/Pages/SearchablePages/2000Newsletters/Newsletter061A.html
It was the opening session of
a workshop exploring the effect that artificial light has on breast cancer
risk, and University of Connecticut epidemiologist Richard Stevens showed an
aerial slide of the United States by night. Dots of white city lights twinkled
against the blackness, coalescing into splotches in areas of high population
density…
…“If light were a drug, I’m
not sure the Food and Drug Administration would approve it,” Charles A.
Czeisler quipped in the Medical Tribune last year. Even tiny slivers of light at night disrupt the
melatonin levels of rats, promoting tumor growth. Removing the pineal
gland in rats stimulates tumor growth, and melatonin inhibits the growth of
estrogen-receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer cells in vitro by 30 to 40
percent. This leads researchers to speculate that reducing our exposure to
light at night might decrease rates, and that pharmacological use of melatonin
may be effective in treating cancer…
…The good news is that
starlight, moonlight, and lightning all fall outside the spectrum of light that
depresses melatonin…
Nighttime illumination might
elevate cancer risk
By J. Raloff
Science News Online, Week of Oct. 17, 1998
http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/10_17_98/19981017fob.asp
…Exposure to light at night
can disrupt the body’s production of melatonin, a brain hormone best known for
its daily role in resetting the body’s biological clock (SN: 5/13/95, p.
300). Secreted primarily in the brain,
and at night, melatonin triggers a host of biochemical activities, including a
nocturnal reduction in the body’s production of estrogen. Some researchers have
speculated that chronically decreasing nocturnal melatonin production—as with light—might increase an
individual’s risk of developing estrogen-related malignancies, such as breast
cancer…
SO WHAT CAN BE DONE???
1. Support outdoor lighting ordinances,
legislation, bills, proposals, ect., which prevent light trespass (light
spilling over on other properties/in windows), and prevent excessive use of
outdoor lighting. The city of Livonia
has an outdoor lighting policy which covers light trespass issues. It can be seen at http://www.geocities.com/eric74382000/policy.htm
2. Make sure your own outdoor lighting is not
shining in windows.
3. If you have a streetlight shinning in your
window, contact the electric company and ask them to install a "flat glass
fixture" (which directs the light more towards the street and not in your
window) and a "shade" (which is a piece of metal blocking the light
from shining in your window. Use of a
window shade in your bedroom is good, but unless you really seal it, light
still gets through. In many cases,
enough to read by. Plus, a window shade
is not that great if you want to get air circulation on a warm summer night.
4. Educate yourself in outdoor lighting! Breast cancer is only the tip of the iceberg
concerning the problems with improper outdoor lighting. This is a wide spread problem which is
getting worse. Poor quality,
troublesome outdoor lighting problems will not go away unless more people are
educated. Quality lighting will cost
everyone less money, reduce different forms of pollution, reduce negative
impacts on wildlife, plant life, and the night sky. A good place to start is the International Dark sky Association
at http://proxima.astro.Virginia.EDU/~ida/index.html
Eric J.
Fitzpatrick
http://www.geocities.com/eric74382000/main.htm