Transport illumination: health risks for personnel and passengers

The hygienic aspects of the transport illumination and the risks of the negative impact of LED lighting on the health of operators, drivers and passengers have been investigated. The transport illumination is a subject of the longitudinal research of the light effect of the beam and signal lights on driver’s reaction and dazzle. The study of the vehicles’ light effect on passengers’ health was not carried out because for the illuminating of the passenger compartments the incandescent bulbs were used, the characteristics of which are well known. Increasing of the duration of trips, their intensity and the replacement of incandescent lamps to LED lamps makes these studies more urgent. Particular attention is drawn on the fact that the transport system transports millions of passengers and children who are regularly exposed to excessive doses of blue light. The blue light time exposure is more than an hour per trip within the city and more than 5 hours during travel between the cities. The specialists of N.M. Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics RAS have indicated that modern white LEDs have expressed emission band in blue spectrum 440-460 nm that is entirely attributable to the spectrum of action of retinal photochemical damage and its pigment epithelium. Such extensive emission poses a hazard to the eyes of children and adolescents, because their crystalline lenses are almost twice as transparent in the dark-blue and blue spectrum area than those in adults. Retinal photochemical damage develops in distant time and can cause gradual, irreversible visual impairment. The risks of negative impact especially increase in the application of blue LED for interior lighting passenger vehicles. It was demonstrated that at the retinal cells’ affection by the excessive dose of the blue light the consequences have delayed character. The results of the accelerated assessment of the retina damage in Japanese quils (Сoturnix japonica). The eyes of these birds are a complete analog of human eyes. It has been shown that moderate daily blue LED lighting of the young animals induces 1.5 times overload of the cellular metabolism of the retina, resulting to its accelerated aging and functional activity suppression of the blood-retinal barrier structures.