LightAware has written to Justine Greening, Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mordaunt, Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, and Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport, to ask for meetings with the charity.
The text of one of the letters is below:
Dear Chris Grayling,
LightAware is a charity dedicated to raising awareness of the effects of artificial lighting on human health and wellbeing.
Recent years have seen huge changes in our lighting environment with the move from incandescent and older fluorescent lighting to modern fluorescent and LED. This change has impacted very severely on the lives of those people unable to tolerate the new lighting technologies. New lighting can exacerbate conditions including lupus, autism, XP, electro-sensitivity, ME, seborrheic eczema, migraine and others, as well as affecting people who have no previous condition. Symptoms can include skin burning, rash, migraine, headache, eye pain, joint pain nausea and confusion.
LightAware is very concerned about the roll out of LED street lighting and the increasing use of LED headlights. This lighting, often extremely glaring and blue rich is having a devastating impact on some light sensitive people, causing extreme pain and social exclusion. There are also serious concerns about their effect on road safety, particularly in regards to blinding glare, unequal light distribution. and the effect of blue light on the eyes of older people.
LightAware would like to meet with you to discuss practical ways to help light sensitive people, and ensure safe outdoor and driving conditions for all. We would very much welcome the opportunity to begin a dialogue with Government to look at this serious but often overlooked situation.
Yours
Eleanor Levin
Trustee
LightAware