Welcome to the LEDs Magazine Lighting for Health & Wellbeing Newsletter for Nov. 15, 2021. We are really going to span the globe today, as they say — at least the technological globe tied to lighting for health. There are just so many angles to this topic and you will find some of that breadth here.

Let’s start with some news that actually is somewhat old but now at least better explained. It goes back to the spring of 2019 when we first mentioned a Bridgelux technology called Thrive that utilizes a pair of blue pumps to even out the blue spectrum in a white LED and fill in the cyan region. During that time gap, we have learned so much about the circadian peak. See my Strategies in Light 2021 coverage for a summary of work in that area.

But back to packaged LEDs, we have finally gotten a more complete story about what Bridgelux calls Thrive 93 LEDs. The LEDs are now commercially available and still offer a significant efficacy advantage relative to other high-CRI LEDs on the market. The savings come in a tradeoff with spectral energy at the red boundary of the human visual range. Bridgelux says that its research shows people prefer Thrive 93.

Switching gears completely, lighting for health can mean literally that. There is still a lot of mercury-containing lamps sold and installed throughout the world, and often such lamps aren’t recycled properly at the end of life. The mercury is regularly dumped in potentially harmful ways and this activity can be especially bad in impoverished regions. We recently had a column from a leader at the Minamata Convention on Mercury pleading for industry action. If you haven’t read it, you should.

Meanwhile, Seoul Semiconductor is a perceived antagonist in the packaged LED story up above. I mention them here because they just released some interesting research that came out of Brigham and Women’s Hospital located at Harvard University. The good news is that for workers a plentiful quantity of good light is more important than tunable spectra. That is another point made in my Strategies in Light coverage. And note the Strategies in Light material was set to expire, but we have decided to leave it available for now so you can still register and access the presentations.

Moving to another lighting for health and wellbeing angle, we also sometimes cover germicidal ultraviolet (UV) technology in this sector, although we also have a UV-focused newsletter. Moreover, I have your attention now. We have an outstanding webcast upcoming on how to take accurate UV-C measurements. Our Carrie Meadows has written a blog on the topic and previewed the webcast. Make plans to join us Thursday.

We have a lot more good content for you linked down below. I’m always looking for solid contributed articles on the topic of lighting for health and wellbeing. Feel free to send me an abstract or outline.

- Maury Wright, (858) 208-9442, [email protected]