The very first presidential effort to ever address Light Pollution: AlGore.org Statement on Light Pollution

I've just been given an ok to run with this from Jim Tate the Deputy
Field Coordinator for Algore.org:

Algore.org statement concerning Light Pollution:

"We stand in support of the control of Light Pollution which is the
unneeded and unnecessary wastage of artificial light into the sky. Not
only does it obliterate the natural beauty of the Night Sky but it is
extremely wasteful costing Americans several Billion Dollars per
year. It is part of our American Carbon Footprint because we emit 1
Million Tons of CO2 every year. Other environmental studies indicate
that this excess light may cause cancer in humans and also causes bird
populations to decrease as well as problems with the life cycles of
turtles."

P. Edward Murray
Northeast Regional Director
Region # 2
(NY,NJ,PA & DE)

ALGORE.ORG

Past President,
Bucks-Mont. Astronomical Assoc., Inc.

Algore.org statement concerning Light Pollution:

that this excess light may cause cancer in humans

That must be those X-ray and Gamma-ray lanterns that
are so popular these days. :-)

On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:58:18 GMT, Chris G wrote:

that this excess light may cause cancer in humans

That must be those X-ray and Gamma-ray lanterns that
are so popular these days. :-)

Well, that would do it I guess. But in this case, it's a reference to
some studies suggesting that we need at least several hours of complete
darkness every night, and not getting it is stressful. Chronic low
levels of stress are associated with reduced immune function and an
increased chance of getting cancer. This remains speculative without
more investigation, of course. But there was an interesting study
published a couple of years ago that identified some very specific
health problems in children who sleep with night lights.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Apr 21, 8:10 pm, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:58:18 GMT, Chris G wrote:
that this excess light may cause cancer in humans

That must be those X-ray and Gamma-ray lanterns that
are so popular these days. :-)

Well, that would do it I guess. But in this case, it's a reference to
some studies suggesting that we need at least several hours of complete
darkness every night, and not getting it is stressful. Chronic low
levels of stress are associated with reduced immune function and an
increased chance of getting cancer. This remains speculative without
more investigation, of course. But there was an interesting study
published a couple of years ago that identified some very specific
health problems in children who sleep with night lights.

Additionally, plants can only perform photosynthesis in near
total darkness. This is an effect that I have witnessed.

Ben

Chris G wrote in :


Algore.org statement concerning Light Pollution:

that this excess light may cause cancer in humans

That must be those X-ray and Gamma-ray lanterns that
are so popular these days. :-)


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract


http://www.darkskysociety.org/news.cfm

articles from dss link above...
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?...de3bf86-ab38-4

http://www.prevention.com/article/0,...99-1-P,00.html

Chris L Peterson wrote in :

On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:58:18 GMT, Chris G wrote:

that this excess light may cause cancer in humans

That must be those X-ray and Gamma-ray lanterns that
are so popular these days. :-)

Well, that would do it I guess. But in this case, it's a reference to
some studies suggesting that we need at least several hours of complete
darkness every night, and not getting it is stressful. Chronic low
levels of stress are associated with reduced immune function and an
increased chance of getting cancer. This remains speculative without
more investigation, of course. But there was an interesting study
published a couple of years ago that identified some very specific
health problems in children who sleep with night lights.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

http://home.cfl.rr.com/aarp/light.html

The Light Pollution/Cancer Connection
The September/October 2000 issue of the Breast Cancer Action Newsletter
included an article by Sharon Batt titled "What Light Through Yonder
Window Wreaks Circadian Rhythms and Breast Cancer." It discusses both
circadian rhythms and the hormone melatonin, which is secreted at night
and has cancer-fighting properties. Melatonin, the author notes, is
secreted at night by species at all evolutionary levels, from algae to
moths to humans. The article reports on the work of three specific
researchers into whether (and how) light is related to cancer growth.

http://www.bcaction.org/Pages/Search...etter061A.html

What Light Through Yonder Window Wreaks—Circadian Rhythms and Breast
Cancer by Sharon Batt

It was the opening session of a workshop exploring the effect that
artificial light has on breast cancer risk, and University of Connecticut
epidemiologist Richard Stevens showed an aerial slide of the United States
by night. Dots of white city lights twinkled against the blackness,
coalescing into splotches in areas of high population density.

The pattern recalled maps showing the geographical distribution of breast
cancer rates, with the high-incidence areas along the northeast coast, the
Great Lakes’ boundary, and in the coastal cities of California.1 The image
neatly captured the hypothesis that participants would consider for the
next two days at the conference (“Circadian Disruption as Endocrine
Disruption in Breast Cancer,” sponsored by the National Action Plan on
Breast Cancer): that artificial light at night is a type of pollution that
contributes to breast cancer.

The hormone melatonin is produced at night and regulates circadian
rhythms, our daily wake-sleep patterns. Give people melatonin supplements
and they nod off. Artificially reverse light and dark, and melatonin
production switches accordingly; so do sleep rhythms. As we age, calcium
deposits accumulate in the pineal gland, which produces melatonin—and some
researchers suspect that both melatonin levels and hours of sleep may be
diminished as a result.

Melatonin has cancer-fighting properties. Seventy-five percent of cancer
shows oxidated DNA damage. Melatonin rivals vitamin C in its ability to
counteract the oxidating effects of estrogen and radiation.

The discovery that the pineal gland actually secretes something dates only
to the 1970s, but this hormone of darkness is ancient. Species at all
evolutionary levels, from algae to moths to humans, secrete melatonin at
night. Nature tripped these circadian switches until a century ago, when
Thomas Edison invented electric light. We in the industrialized North can
now choose from 15,000 sources of artificial light to shorten our long
winter nights.

“If light were a drug, I’m not sure the Food and Drug Administration would
approve it,” Charles A. Czeisler quipped in the Medical Tribune last year.
Even tiny slivers of light at night disrupt the melatonin levels of rats,
promoting tumor growth. Removing the pineal gland in rats stimulates tumor
growth, and melatonin inhibits the growth of estrogen-receptor-positive
(ER+) breast cancer cells in vitro by 30 to 40 percent. This leads
researchers to speculate that reducing our exposure to light at night
might decrease rates, and that pharmacological use of melatonin may be
effective in treating cancer.

Research Findings

Josephine Arendt, a professor at the Centre for Chronobiology in Surrey,
England, became interested in melatonin after she was diagnosed with
breast cancer 19 years ago. Her work illustrates the difficulty of testing
hypotheses with real-world studies. Comparing blood serum melatonin levels
of sighted individuals living in the United Kingdom with those of blind
people and inhabitants of parts of Antarctica where the sun does not rise
at all for three months, Arendt found no significant differences. Two
studies of profoundly blind women have found lower breast cancer rates, as
predicted, in this population; a third study did not.

Arendt also found no differences between melatonin levels in women with
benign and malignant breast tumors (an American study has found a
difference). Since melatonin levels diminish with age, Arendt stresses
that epidemiological research should control for this variable. Small
pilot studies are inherently limited but, as Arendt observes, “these
studies are not cheap, and it’s hard to get funding for a large,
prospective study with negative pilot data.”

Epidemiologist Richard Stevens, meanwhile, points to a study that found
elevated breast cancer rates among Finnish flight attendants, noting that
the incidence is too high to be accounted for solely by increased
radiation exposure. Disruption of circadian rhythms might well be a
causative factor in these cancers, he says. And alcohol disrupts sleep,
which in turn could suppress melatonin, perhaps explaining why excessive
alcohol consumption increases breast cancer risk.

Windows of Time

William Hrushesky, M.D., a clinical researcher at the Stratton VA Medical
Center in Albany, New York, believes that research on cycles should extend
beyond circadian rhythms to menstrual and seasonal cycles. We already
know, he points out, about certain “windows of time” that can optimize the
effectiveness of cancer therapy while reducing side effects. Cancer drugs
should be administered in the morning, when bone marrow and gut
proliferate at two to three times the nighttime rate. In a study of women
with ovarian cancer, optimal timing of chemotherapy improved efficacy from
11 to 44 percent. Performing breast surgery in the early luteal phase of
the menstrual cycle (days 14-21) yields a 25 percent advantage in ten-year
survival over surgery in other phases, he says, while mammography
screening is less effective in the luteal phase. (The day menstrual
bleeding begins is considered the first day of the cycle.) Pap smears for
cervical cancer are more sensitive during the summer, Hrushesky says, and
breast cancer is most often diagnosed in the spring.

“We are doing great harm because we ignore cycles,” he charges. His work
has been ridiculed and ignored, he says, because of inertia and linear
thinking in the research community. Although five prospective studies on
the timing of breast cancer treatments are now in progress, he predicts
that only one, an Italian study, is properly designed to yield meaningful
results.

Translating the Data

While little of the research that exists on circadian rhythms is
definitive and can be translated to real-world practice, some lends itself
to an approach based on the best-available evidence. The good news is that
starlight, moonlight, and lightning all fall outside the spectrum of light
that depresses melatonin. Researchers speculate that the body is made
aware of lighting not through vision but through another system in the
retina—so if your bedroom window is next to a street light, eye shades or
a light-tight blind are harmless ways to keep the melatonin flowing.
Red-spectrum light is least disruptive and therefore best for night lights
or clocks with illuminated time displays; blue-green light is most
disruptive.

For advocates, research into circadian rhythms offers plenty of scope for
action. Melatonin is a product that can’t be patented, which suggests why
research into its therapeutic potential is so sluggish. Also, circadian
rhythms lie outside the realm of much of cancer research, so proposals are
more apt to flounder. Finally, as William Hrushesky argues, we need to put
hard-won knowledge about “windows of time” to better use.

For me, the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer’s workshop recalled an
early radicalizing experience, a 1991 conference at which Congressional
representative Pat Schroeder blasted cancer researchers for excluding
women from clinical trials. Because women’s cyclical physiology doesn’t
fit the linear shoe of fashionable science, she charged, “they even used
male rats to study breast cancer.” Finally, a critical mass of researchers
is saying that cycles matter.

Sharon Batt currently holds the Nancy Ruth chair in women’s studies at
Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. She is the author of Patient No
Mo The Politics of Breast Cancer (Gynergy Books, 1994) and cofounded
Breast Cancer Action Montreal.

1 See the National Geophysical Data Center’s Web site (www.ngdc.noaa.gov).
Click on “DMSP Data Archive,” then on “City Lights at Night,” which will
link you to a map showing nighttime lights around the world.

Ed wrote in news:1177196613.218481.242410
@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:

Algore.org statement concerning Light Pollution:

Well, I applaud Al Gore for this, but isn't he planning to have a number of
simultaneous rock concerts around the world to raise consciousness about
global warming? How many millions of kilowatts of electricity will be
required to pull this off, thus actually contributing to the global warming
problem, since fossil fuels will generate most of this electricity. Isn't
this hypocrisy?

--
A: Because it disturbs the logical flow of the message.
Q: Why is top posting frowned upon?

On Apr 22, 2:50 am, elaich wrote:
Ed wrote in news:1177196613.218481.242410
@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:

Algore.org statement concerning Light Pollution:

Well, I applaud Al Gore for this, but isn't he planning to have a number of
simultaneous rock concerts around the world to raise consciousness about
global warming? How many millions of kilowatts of electricity will be
required to pull this off, thus actually contributing to the global warming
problem, since fossil fuels will generate most of this electricity. Isn't
this hypocrisy?


It's good to have a celebrity speak out against light pollution, but
why did it have to be VP Al Gore? :-)

If and when light pollution is reduced to a low level and illuminated
billboards, etc., are banned, I -might- consider converting over to
compact fluorescent bulbs...but not until then.

On Apr 22, 8:10�am, wrote:
On Apr 22, 2:50 am, elaich wrote:

Ed wrote in news:1177196613.218481.242410
@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com:

Algore.org statement concerning Light Pollution:

What ever happened to the global cooling movement of the 1970.
NYC was supposed to be encompased by huge ice flows by now. Is this
failure symbolic of the climatologist failure to predict the
weather the next day.






Well, I applaud Al Gore for this, but isn't he planning to have a number of
simultaneous rock concerts around the world to raise consciousness about
global warming? How many millions of kilowatts of electricity will be
required to pull this off, thus actually contributing to the global warming
problem, since fossil fuels will generate most of this electricity. Isn't
this hypocrisy?

It's good to have a celebrity speak out against light pollution, but
why did it have to be VP Al Gore? *:-)

If and when light pollution is reduced to a low level and illuminated
billboards, etc., are banned, I -might- consider converting over to
compact fluorescent bulbs...but not until then.

On 22 Apr 2007 06:58:32 -0700, wrote:

What ever happened to the global cooling movement of the 1970.
NYC was supposed to be encompased by huge ice flows by now. Is this
failure symbolic of the climatologist failure to predict the
weather the next day.

It isn't the job of climatologists to predict the next day's weather.

Was it a symbolic failure of the medical researcher in the 1970s to fail
to predict the value of genetic analysis? Was it a symbolic failure of
the 1970s cosmologist to fail to predict the nature of the Universe's
expansion?

Science advances, and climatology is much more sophisticated than it was
just 30 years ago, when it was really just beginning to come into its
own as an analytical science. Sometimes we forget how recently some
sciences modernized: besides climatology, much of geology and biology
has really solidified in just the last half century.

For that matter, you only need to look at the S&T column reporting the
news from 50 years back to see how much astronomy has changed.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com