The Government’s Stupid Ban of Incandescent Lightbulbs

Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a leading world expert on circadian clocks and light, has an article in Psychology Today titled “Banned in the US: Healthy Light Bulbs“, which explains how government regulations aim to effectively ban incandescent lightbulbs in favor of LED bulbs.

This is being done under the guise of climate activism on the grounds that LED bulbs are more energy efficient, but the problem is that most LEDs emit a narrow spectrum with lots of blue light, which has harmful health effects.

The government as usual is interfering in the marketplace, trying to dictate our behavior in every aspect of our lives, with total disregard for the extraordinary harms caused by its myopic meddling.

Incandescent bulbs emit a broader spectrum including infrared light and so more closely mimic the health-supportive light we would get from the sun if we didn’t spend so much of our day indoors with our “modern” lifestyles. (I’m putting the word in quotation marks since I’m firmly convinced that someday when humankind becomes civilized, people will look back at our present era and view us as a bunch of barbarians.)

As Moore-Ede explains, sunlight exposure regulates our circadian rhythm, whereas evidence indicates that excessive blue light after sunset suppresses melatonin production and disrupts the regenerative powers of sleep in ways that increase the risk of cancer.

As he writes,

The DOE is tipping the scales to justify its draconian policy of banning healthy lights by taking into account only the benefits of reducing greenhouse gases. They fail to consider the health costs of using blue-rich LED light bulbs at night, which include sleep disorders, psychiatric disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and much more.

Last month, on the occasion of the solar eclipse, I posted about the importance of light to our health and shared some tips and made a few product recommendations, including Iris computer software for controlling the light emitted by your monitor, blue-light-blocking LED options (standard and three-way dimmable), blue-light-blocking glasses (with earpieces or clip-on), and a red light therapy panel. Read it here:

Relatedly, I also shared examples a few weeks ago of harms to our environment, our economy, and our immune systems caused by the government’s efforts to centrally plan everything:

And also on a related note, here are three recent posts on the topic of climate change: