Light Pollution and Insect Mortality: A Growing Concern

Light pollution is a significant environmental issue, intensifying insect mortality and disrupting the natural day/night cycles of humans, animals, and plants. This growing concern is now being addressed in the context of industrial facility lighting, including hazardous areas. R. STAHL's latest-generation lighting solutions are designed to mitigate these effects.

The Insect Population Crisis

The looming environmental crisis is alarming: If current trends continue, conservation organizations and scientists predict that the insect population could face catastrophic declines. Without effective intervention, scientists warn that insects could face total extinction within a century, which would have dire consequences for biodiversity and human food supply.

Multiple factors contribute to insect mortality, including soil sealing, intensive agriculture, overfertilization, and pesticide use. Light pollution is another significant contributor, especially since half of all insect species are nocturnal. These insects rely on darkness for protection from predators and have evolved to navigate by the moon and stars. Artificial lighting disrupts this natural rhythm, leading to increased mortality.

The Growing Impact of Artificial Lighting

The night sky is increasingly illuminated by artificial light from urban and industrial areas, making it harder for humans to observe the stars and significantly disrupting nocturnal wildlife. The area of the Earth's surface illuminated by artificial light is growing by about 10% annually, with the amount of light emitted from the ground increasing by around 2% each year. This creates a problem: artificial light attracts insects—and their predators. Up to 40% of insects drawn to streetlights die, either by becoming prey, dehydrating, or overheating due to the lamps' intense heat. Other animals, such as newly hatched sea turtles, are also affected, often failing to find their way to the sea due to disorientation caused by nearby industrial lighting.

The Role of LED Technology

Modern lighting technologies like LEDs are both part of the problem and the solution. Although the energy efficiency of LEDs has led to an increase in illuminated areas, their potential to solve light pollution issues becomes clear when considering how differently humans and animals perceive light. For instance, blue light and UV radiation (wavelength < 450 nm) appear brighter to animals, especially insects, while humans perceive light at wavelengths of 555 nm and above as very bright. Many nocturnal insects are highly sensitive to UV radiation, which lies outside the spectrum visible to humans.

LEDs as a Solution

Fluorescent and mercury vapor lamps, commonly used in industrial facilities, emit blue light and UV radiation, making them harmful to insects, which often die from contact with these lamps' hot surfaces. LED lamps, by contrast, emit no UV radiation, and their blue light content can be adjusted. Warm white LED light sources, with lower blue light content, attract fewer insects. The European Union has recognized this advantage and decided to phase out fluorescent lamps. Under Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/2020, the most common sizes of fluorescent lamps—T8 and T5—can no longer be marketed.

Balancing Industrial Lighting with Health and Safety Standards

In industrial workplaces, lighting must meet health and safety standards, as there is a direct correlation between light intensity and workplace accidents. Fortunately, protecting wildlife and ensuring worker safety are not mutually exclusive. Reducing blue light content in nighttime lighting benefits both animals and humans, as it helps regulate the production of melatonin, a hormone crucial for sleep and the body's natural circadian rhythm. This aligns with the IDA's recommendation to use warm white light with a correlated colour temperature (CCT) of no more than 3000 K.

In hazardous industrial environments, where explosive atmospheres may be present due to combustible dust or solvents, lighting must also meet strict explosion protection standards.

R. STAHL's Expertise

R. STAHL has over a century of experience developing explosion-proof lighting at its Weimar facility. The company is among the few manufacturers offering LED light fittings with neutral white light as standard and alternative options with warm white or cool white light. Keeping IDA guidelines and animal conservation in mind, R. STAHL also offers light fittings that produce extremely warm white light (< 2700 K) and do not emit light upwards, making them suitable replacements for sodium vapor lamps, which have poorer colour rendering than LEDs.

Careful lighting design is crucial: Lights must be installed to minimize intensity loss due to scatter and ensure that key areas for employee and plant safety are uniformly illuminated with minimal shadows. Advanced design tools, which allow for 3D modelling of spaces, system components, and shadows, are invaluable in this process. These tools help determine the optimal illumination characteristics and mounting angles, reducing harmful light emissions.

Conclusion

Modern lighting solutions that ensure both employee safety and plant security can be implemented without compromising animal conservation. The transition from fluorescent and mercury vapor lamps to the latest-generation LED lighting should be undertaken without delay, as part of a well-designed installation.

Visit R. STAHL West and Central Africa for more information.