NEMA Publishes Whitepaper About Outdoor Lighting and Human/Animal Factors

The Lighting Systems Division of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) recently published a white paper, “Outdoor Lighting and Human/Animal Factors: An Industry Evaluation,” available for download at the National Lighting Bureau, here.

The paper examines issues that can result in compromised outdoor-lighting quality when color issues are misunderstood and, therefore, misapplied. “Some proposals oversimplify the ecological tradeoffs that are inherent with any proposal to limit outdoor lighting to a certain correlated color temperature (CCT),” the paper states. “Such recommendations do not recognize the inconsistencies of such a spectrum choice, for instance, that long wavelength ‘red’ light purportedly may disturb certain bird migrations while short wavelength (i.e., blue) light distracts sea turtles. How is such a trade-off to be reconciled between species? The topic of lighting color is complex and involves many factors beyond CCT.

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