LED headlights & glare

I am concerned about the massive proliferation of LED lights in all areas of our lives, but particularly with respect to automobile headlights and street/outdoor lighting. The harsh blue-white color temperature of these LEDs (say, 6000K and above) is dazzling to the eye at night. When I drive past cold white headlights, my vision takes longer to return to normal than when driving past even bright halogen headlights. In addition, my area has mostly replaced sodium street lighting with bright white LEDs. Rather than casting a diffuse glow that makes it easy to discern shapes at night, LED streetlights provide a bright area of light, while the area beyond if not illuminated as well appears even darker in comparison because the eye has to adjust to the bright and harsh LED lighting. Next, bright white LED street lighting shines through (my) residential windows at night and makes it impossible for me to sleep without an eye mask, meaning I can no longer wake up to sunlight because I need to cover my eyes to block the bright light from the street lights. Harsh/bluish lighting has already been proven to disrupt the circadian rhythm of humans and wildlife alike. Automotible headlights now are extremely bright to the point of causing temporary blindness at night. I feel far more unsafe driving at night now than I did ten years ago. I also am frequently blinded as a pedestrian when cars shine their headlights on me. I'm also under 30 with 20/20 vision. This is not a problem limited to those with poor eyesight. I have also noticed that even when LEDs in public aren't necessarily too bright, they are often very intense light sources coming from small points that tend to be dazzling/blinding when you look directly at them. Street and vehicle lighting should, in my opinion, not only have a limit on the color temperature and brightness of lighting, but there should be a surface intensity light emission limit as well. For the same overall amount of light, a larger light fixture or one with a diffuser will be far easier on the eyes and less blinding than a light fixture or headlight that emits the same amount of light from a very small surface area.

I am very hypersensitive to Radiofrequency Radiation, all wireless radiation and to electromagnetic fields. Long tube fluorescent lights are the worst and LEDs and curly fluorescents can be tolerated a bit longer. The closer the lighting is the harder it is on me. The old incandescents are the best for me. Cellphone are horrible. I can't use them or be around them. Even if they are on airplane mode they make me ill. I have a landline telephone and get ill even if I'm using that for a long time or if the line is not very clear and static free. My computer is ethernet and I need to limit my time using it as well.This has all impacted my life severely.

I am submitting this comment in response to HHS’s Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure. My comment is to explain the details of what I have to go through to live in this contaminated EMF environment. This is what I have to do what I can to protect myself from EMF radiation: I moved to the country on acreage so that I have no neighbors close to me which reduces my exposure. I refused the Smart Reader (which fortunately Oregon allows) and now have to pay an additional $3 per month as meter reading fee even though they do not read the meter monthly. They only read the meter once a year. My router does not have a separate WiFi on/off switch and Century Link says they do not have a router with this feature that is compatible with this capability. Therefore, I turn off my router and only turn it on when I access the internet which I do only on a hardwired laptop. I do not have a Smart TV so that it is not adding to my exposure. I watch tv with an antenna and record programs with the software on my Hauppauge tuner that is in the desktop computer attached to my TV screen. All hardwired. However, when my tv monitor goes out I understand that there are no TV’s without WiFi available anymore. I do not have any appliances with WiFi capabilities but I understand that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any appliance without WiFi which will become a problem in the future. I do not have space for a printer near my computer so I have to use WiFi. I keep that printer turned off so that it is not searching for a WiFi signal except when I need to print something. On my cell phone I keep Bluetooth, WiFi, Data and Location off at all times. Every couple days, I try to remember to turn on WiFi for a few minutes in order to receive any text messages that were sent to me by RCS. I keep my cell phone in a far corner in my house and when I am outside, I keep it away from my body. I use a stylus to text. I use Airplane mode, Farraday bag, turning my phone off as other methods to reduce EMF. I have an in-ground landline phone line to my house, and I have corded phones. I installed LED lights in my kitchen and dining area before I knew that they were not good for my health. Now, due to federal regulations I am not able to purchase new cans and incandescent bulbs. That needs to be reversed. My car is a 2008 and therefore does not have the invasive electronic features. I have not purchased a new car because, I understand that any car from 2012 to date has all the invasive electronic features. I do not know what I am going to do if my car fails and I have to replace it. Going inside any hospital or clinic is very unhealthy as you are barraged with EMF. If I require medical assistance it will need to be outside of the medical system. I am forced to pay for Medicare even though I choose not to, and cannot, use its services. I am researching to find out how I can opt out of Medicare so that I can use that money to support my health outside of the HealthCare system such as Home Care, Telehealth, etc. As you can see, this is A LOT. I am blessed to now be retired and have the money to be able to make these modifications in order to feel healthy and vibrant and protect my health. But the question is, should we be creating a world where this is necessary? I support HHS taking an active role in examining the potential health and environmental effects of wireless radiation. Questions about human health should be addressed by federal agencies with appropriate expertise in medicine, biology, epidemiology, and public health, and the experiences of individuals and families who report being affected should be considered alongside the scientific evidence. I urge HHS to carefully evaluate these experiences and the scientific evidence, identify gaps in current research, give particular attention to children and other potentially vulnerable populations, and establish appropriate federal research priorities regarding wireless radiation and public health. Thank you for providing individuals and families with an opportunity to be heard.

I hate dealing with LED lights of all kinds. Street lights, headlights, store lights.. Not to mention billoards that are like TV LEDs..when does it become Light Pollution? These lights are bad for our eyes, I literally can't see when a truck is driving behind me on the freeway or when I make a turn and a car comes directly in front of me before I turn and get blinded. Go back to our old yellow dusk lights.

My employer has recently installed BioUp LED bulbs. These are AI controlled to adjust the blue light frequency. As a 3rd shift worker that struggles with ideopathic hypersomnia, this has had a profound negative effect on me. It manipulates the circadian rhythm, alters hormones, disrupts meletonin production. After being in the lights for an hour and a half, i have severe cramps,followed by 3 weeks of light bleeding.my body aches like i have the flu constantly. I work in the dark whenever im able to, and turn off lights wherever I can. It helps a little. They are motion sensored, so its impossible to keep them off completely. Automated buildings are killing people slowly. My teenager is also having similar issues from school. And her mood is irritable, angry, all the time. Its not at all normal for her. Shes missing a day or 2 a week from it. Its well known what damages LEDs ,specifically the blue light frequency, does to our body systems. Infertility,low sperm viability, cancer, retinal damage, ect,ect. These are harmful, not just blinding us while driving. They are dangerous,and MUST be removed from infrastructure ,homes, SCHOOLS.

The constant flickering of LED lighting causes extreme headaches while driving. It also distroys night vision for humans and wildlife neighbors. Please STOP the endless abuse for everyone.

Yes these LED Headlights ARE DANGEROUS!! I've had to on NUMEROUS occasions actually STOP my vehicle because I was so Blinded and couldn't see where I was going! Someone is going to Rearend me this way! People are going to DIE because of these things!!! How many Folks have to be injured/Die before the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT does it's Job?!

The first time I bought LED lights was Christmas lights. I’ve always loved Christmas lights, the glow they give, the mood lighting, signifying a special time of year, and a warmth of a glow in darkness. When I set them up, plugged them in and looked at them, I thought hmmm, this is underwhelming, this light is a cool white that’s not so great. As time went by, studying the situation, analyzing their worth, I noticed that it was actually hurting my eyes to look at them. I also then began to feel an unease, nausea, the complete opposite of a magical sense of warmth of the holidays. I tried to soldier through it, but I quickly realized as an intuitive person and artist, that this light is toxic for me, whatever it is doing, I can tell, this is not good. I wrote it off as maybe being cheap lights. I had also bought a 60 watt bulb around the same time to use closely, with a studio light for painting. I experienced similar results, I was closer to them and felt even more nauseated, and developed headaches. As an artist I also noted that I am not seeing color as well, and light itself as well. I switched back to incandescents and have lived that way ever since. Sadly, as streetlights were replaced with LEDs, and stores started to use them, especially grocery stores, I came under that same feeling, nausea, confusion, and unexplained anxiety response. If you think about the old days in a grocery store, there may have been several different types of light in one store, the meat department may have been different other parts of the store may be different, and that creates memory, differing atmospheres for different parts of a store where you know and recognize where you are. If you replace that with strong LEDs, everything looks the same, there are no different nuances and subtleties to a space that gives you pattern recognition. Everything is just the same, there are no different parts of a store anymore, it’s just all one. It’s a disorienting experience. There is no variety of space, it’s all one, and feels very much like what you would expect prison lighting to feel like, something designed against you, not for your benefit. I am an artist, specifically with a love of the fine gradations of light, it’s what makes a renaissance painting so magical. A deep understanding of the power of light. What we are living under now in the public realm, in my opinion is toxic. I dread big box stores with strong LED light. I know I’m going into confusion, nausea, and not seeing well. It is only when I have left a store, and gone into sunlight, where I see clearly again, and start to feel normal again. That is my true experience as an artist.

I am writing to express my concern about LED headlights and the danger they pose. When I drive at night and come across a car with LED headlights on, I am in genuine fear that I will crash with a tree or pedestrian because of my absolute inability to see anything beyond the lights. They are painful, and affect my vision. And I am a relatively young person; I am only 27 years of age, but I genuinely worry how these LED headlights are affecting my eye health. Once, I was driving up my street (a small dead-end), and a car with the LED headlights on was parked on the side to pick someone up. I could not pass the car, so I was forced to sit there with the LED headlights burning into my retinas. Even though I tried looking away as best as I was able, I still was seeing spots from those headlights several minutes later. And it is so much worse at night, when the darkness forces it to be the only thing your eyes can perceive. I shudder to think how many lives have already been lost because people are unable to see when they are driving at night, because they have been blinded by the headlights of oncoming traffic. These are deaths that could have been avoided by legislation that better regulates. I am including articles highlighting concerns on the effects of headlight brightness. Please consider how much these blue-tinted, absurdly bright LED headlights are affecting the health and safety of so many Americans.

I am submitting this comment in response to HHS’s Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure. I am responding from the perspective of myself. I am a truck driver and have had repeated cancer on the right side of my face since 2015. I am right handed and had always held my cell phone to my right ear. When I learned of bluetooth earpieces I bought one and wore it on my right ear. As a driver as well as a dispatcher for 7 other drivers I spent the greater portion of my day on the phone routing drivers. Due to the repeated cancer treatments that included my cheek, around my ear I moved the bluetooth to my left ear. This month I went in to my eye doctor because my vision driving at night has become blurry and headlights, especially blue ones give me headaches. My doctor reported that my left eye is perfectly fine but that my right eye has a cateract that should be removed soon as it affects my ability to drive my truck at night. I support HHS taking an active role in examining the potential health and environmental effects of wireless radiation. Questions about human health should be addressed by federal agencies with appropriate expertise in medicine, biology, epidemiology, and public health, and the experiences of individuals and families who report being affected should be considered alongside the scientific evidence. I urge HHS to carefully evaluate these experiences and the scientific evidence, identify gaps in current research, give particular attention to children and other potentially vulnerable populations, and establish appropriate federal research priorities regarding wireless radiation and public health. Thank you for providing individuals and families with an opportunity to be heard.