Wigan council fits 5,000 wrong lights

Wigan Councils new £11 million LED lighting scheme has hit the buffers after it has been found to have replaced 5,000 existing lights with LED blue lights that may have health concerns.

However what is surprising is that with what appears to be little regard for these concerns, it has admitted it will continue to press on with fitting  LED blue lights and not switch to warmer amber ‘CCT’ lights until the new year.

Lux Review (the official publication of the Lighting Industry Association) has printed a story concerning the issue that Wigan residents know nothing about.  Full story here

Wigan Council has confirmed our report from last week that it is abandoning blue-tinged LED luminaires in favour of warmer colour models, although it downplayed any possible health concerns it had for the colder lamps. Wigan has already replaced about 5,500 streetlights so far out of 31,000 units.’ ‘The first phase will continue with the colder temperature 5,700 K models, but Wigan will shift to a warmer, 'CCT' (correlated colour temperature) when it moves into residential areas in the spring’

Wigan Council told national campaigner Simon Nicholas that it would now deploy the ‘warmer’ lights. Wigan Council had written to Simon Nicholas after he expressed concerns about the LED retrofit, including possible harmful health effects from blue-tinged light such as sleep disruption and possible links to cancer.

Assistant Director of infrastructure Mark Tilley is quoted as saying ‘We are aware of some of the claims being made with regards to the potential impact on health of LEDs with rich blue light content,' Tilley told Lux. 'However, we are not aware of any of these claims being specifically linked to LEDs being used in street lighting applications but do understand that LEDs with a lower CCT have not been linked to these claims in the same way.'

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Its clear that Labour run Wigan council did not learn from others mistakes.

The Manchester Evening news reported in May 2013 that Trafford council did a u–turn on its LED lighting scheme after concerns were raised after research by scientists from Madrid University suggests that light emitted by LEDs could damage retinas, especially of children. An American study found that the lights could suppress melatonin, a brain hormone that regulates sleep.

Story here;  A town hall has performed a U-turn on planned ‘UFO’ street lights 

A report by Derbyshire Council here seems to indicates why Wigan Council are having to shift away from Blue lights.

‘High blue light content of LED, over 5000K, has been cited as having the potential for stimulating the circadian rhythm and disrupting sleep patterns.

A mid-range light colour (CCT) of 4000K with a colour rendering index greater than 80 would create a balance between the need to keep energy consumption to a minimum and limiting the amount of blue light emitted. 

Despite being one of Lords Smith's flagship policies, even with such a simple task as changing a light bulb the Labour party have problems!