Lighting and Health Equity
UPDATE: WILD NYC and The Light and Health Research Center have teamed up to present a virtual event on the topic of Light and Health Equity on Sept 20th. More details after the post.
The lighting industry has never been short on making dramatic claims about what lighting can do. It's a storied tradition dating all the way back to our first salesman, Thomas Edison. The most popular flavor of sales claims in the industry today is that of improved health outcomes. Lighting can help you sleep better, shorten hospital stays, help you concentrate, and darkness at night can even help prevent breast cancer.
Here's the thing, the claims are true.
I'm not saying every manufacturer's claims are categorically true, far from it, there are many that are outlandish, right on their face. But there is enough aggregate science that we can start from the premise that the quantity and quality of light people live and work with can either increase or decrease their quality of life. We know we need bright days and dark nights. We know some light sources reveal colors better than others. We know that light changes how we sleep and good sleep is a keystone of quality health. Properly applied light can help stave off dementia and Alzheimer's symptoms, light can prevent car accidents, and improve educational outcomes. To be sure many of these topics require further study, (quick plug for the Light and Health Research Center), but we're past the point of guessing. We know that good light makes things better.
But we don't need complex white papers and longitudinal studies to prove this. We know this from our lived experiences. The most prestigious art museums and galleries in the world invest in the best lighting on the market to showcase their collections. Luxury homes invest in high-quality lighting that adds beauty, elegance, and function, restaurants and hotels work with designers to painstakingly create ambient experiences through light that make a space comfortable and inviting and make the food that much more enjoyable. Every television show, movie, theatrical performance, and concert you've ever experienced employs a crew of lighting professionals to make every moment look its best.
So if we know that light can make people’s lives better and indeed make us healthier then there is a next logical question - who gets to benefit from what we know light can do?
Light and Health Equity
First a definition.
Health equity is achieved when every person has the opportunity to “attain his or her full health potential” and no one is “disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of social position or other socially determined circumstances.” Health inequities are reflected in differences in length of life; quality of life; rates of disease, disability, and death; severity of disease; and access to treatment.
With this definition in mind, we can think about how light might contribute to the concept of health equity. The easiest place to conjure an example is probably sleep. If you live in subsidized housing there is a very good chance that you never experience dark nights even in your own bedroom. Security and area lighting blast light into your windows all night long detracting from the quality of your sleep. We know lack of good sleep contributes to countless secondary health effects.
Queensbridge housing project, NYC. Look at all the light shooting into the windows. Photo credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
Another example is K-12 education. We know that access to natural light, a combination of sources, and a higher quality of light source all contribute to better energy and attentiveness. If we know lighting can improve education and health outcomes in younger students isn't it imperative that *ALL* students have access to that kind of quality lighting?
It's easy to see the logic in this. When we think about the latest lighting innovations in healthcare, it's not hard to imagine which hospitals might employ them first.
It's at this point that the tide of idealism slams into the shore of economics. The argument here goes "better light is more expensive and there isn't money in the budget." My response to that is that budgets reflect priorities. I believe children in school should be a priority. If the pandemic taught us anything it's just how vital schools are to the daily lives of so many children. You might argue, that they deserve better meals, more educational tools, more staffing, and so many other things. I don't argue with any of that, but my field is lighting and so my primary focus is on how we can use light to bring more equity to our society. So many segments of our population can have their lives improved with light. From premature babies in the NICU to senior citizens in group homes, we can make people healthier if we design lighting situations that are advantageous.
How do we get there?
Certainly, it's easy for me to make impassioned commentary, but taking the actions necessary to bring equity to design will take more than blog posts. Fortunately, we have good models for how to bring more equitable design to our built environments. We already know that IES lighting recommendations are the standard that municipalities use to set light levels for various functions. We know that fire and safety codes can radically improve the safety of our buildings. The Americans with Disabilities Act has improved the accessibility of our buildings. The energy codes of California have moved the nation forward when it comes to more sustainable buildings. We can do the same thing when it comes to defining and codifying best practices for everything from schools to senior citizen homes. Not everything needs to be a code, but if the basics are elevated from "35 foot-candles at the desk" to "35 foot-candles at the desk horizontally and 50 foot-candles at the eye vertically" we would have made a huge leap in our thinking. If we changed our city ordinances to allow for darker nights in all residential areas, we'll be improving sleep. If we write procedures for natural light exposure and light therapy for seniors we will improve lives.
These are all within our grasp but will take broader thinking and a willingness to employ more study. I have every faith that our industry will meet that call.
Details on the LHRC+WILD Event
Tuesday, September 20th, 6pm
WILD NYC and the Light and Health Research Center (LHRC) have joined forces to discuss the topic Equity in Lighting. Every person, young and old, wealthy or poor, deserves good, quality lighting that is crucial to their well-being. Our goal is to uncover the sectors where we believe light inequality is greatest and as an industry discuss ideas on how to reduce or eliminate this inequity.
Join us on 9/20 to find out the results of the survey and to discuss how we should move forward with this new knowledge.
Who is invited: anyone interested in brainstorming on how to make light more equitable
What: Presentation and Discussion lead by LHRC and WILD
When: Tuesday, September 20, 6-7:15pm
