Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for July 8, 2020. I try my best to ignore the happenings of the coronavirus pandemic. I need a break from it, as I’m sure all of you do. But I can’t help but read the latest news and to try and focus on the science.
This week, the scientific community has aggressively attacked the World Health Organization (WHO) relative to WHO’s continued focus on infection spread through direct contact as opposed to what seems to be far more infectious airborne transmission. An article on the topic from more than 200 leading scientists was published Monday in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.
What does the above have to do with LEDs and lighting? Well, we have regularly covered advances in the WELL Building standards that focus on healthier buildings. We mainly have written about circadian-friendly lighting. But WELL does cover air quality. I’m betting WELL will have stronger mandates soon as will other building regulatory policy. It’s important to monitor carbon dioxide levels to maintain worker wellbeing, but HVAC may be the real secret weapon relative to the novel coronavirus and other pathogens to come.
You may well be tired of my musings on UV-C-band disinfection, but it is a very important technology. Safely-implemented surface disinfection is a noble undertaking. But I think the real win will be UV-C integrated in HVAC systems where humans aren’t exposed to the radiation and all air is disinfected continuously. I think that UV-C, or some similarly-capable, air-disinfection technology, will become a requisite in commercial and educational spaces.
Looking to news of the week, the ams acquisition of Osram is mercifully headed to the finish line — I think. I still fear it could enter the equivalent of one of NASCAR’s green-white-checker, wash-and-repeat sequences. But our Mark Halper reports that the European Commission has blessed the deal. Expectations are that it will close by Thursday of this week, barely missing original targets despite the endless sequence of financial maneuvering.
We also have a story on the latest US Department of Energy research focused on LED technology. Regular presenters at our Strategies in Light events, Lynn Davis, research fellow at RTI International, and Monica Hansen, principal at LED Lighting Advisors, authored the report. The lumen maintenance of LEDs has progressed nicely. There remains work to be done in chromaticity uniformity over time. That is one of the reasons that I have continued to suggest the need for a renewed focus on light quality in our industry.
Note also that the DesignLights Consortium (DLC) is moving forward with market-transformation policy that will improve quality of light. The consortium’s new performance standards took effect July 1.
You will find many more stories of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.
- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]