Agenda Item # 10.1 - Mark Baker | Received 03/19/20231 of 2
9450 SW Gemini Drive
PMB 44671
Beaverton, OR 97008
March 18, 2023
BY EMAIL
Gilroy City Council
Gilroy, California
cityclerk@cityofgilroy.org
Re: LED Electronic Billboards
Dear Gilroy City Council,
In 1968, Congress passed the Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act to protect citizens
from electromagnetic radiation from electronic products. Congress mandated that the Food and Drug
Administration publish performance standards for any electronic product that emits electromagnetic
radiation such as x-ray machines, televisions, radios, lasers, and LED displays. During the past 13 years,
Jeffrey Shuren (jeff.shuren@fda.hhs.gov) has been the Director of the Center for Devices and
Radiological Health at the FDA and it has been his decision to not publish comfort, health, or safety
standards for any LED products. Thus, because of the lack of vetting and regulatory standards, neither
Mike Conrotto nor OutFront Media nor the city of Gilroy have any legal authorization to authorize,
approve, manufacture, sell, rent, or operate LED digital billboards.
The Soft Lights Foundation advocates for the protection of the natural night resource and for
the protection of citizens from the harms of Light Emitting Diode visible radiation. In compliance with
the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, the Soft Lights Foundation petitioned the FDA to compel Mr.
Shuren to publish the necessary performance standards for LED products on June 12, 2022.1 Mr. Shuren
and the FDA have been sitting on our petition and failing to act on it. Soft Lights Foundation members
are currently contacting members of Congress and requesting an investigation into why the FDA is
refusing to regulate LED products.
All other federal agencies, including the EPA, CPSC, DOE, DOT, US Access Board, and others have
deferred to the FDA for regulations on LED products. Not a single federal agency has published comfort,
health, safety, or civil rights standards for the visible radiation emitted by products using LEDs.
LEDs emit an unnatural type of visible radiation with spatial, spectral, and temporal properties
that are known to be hazardous to human health.2,3 There is a class of individuals who cannot
neurologically tolerate LED visible radiation and will suffer adverse reactions when exposed to LED
1 https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2022-P-1151-0001
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9420367/
3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7830240/
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radiation such as seizures, migraines, anxiety, reduced vision, impaired cognitive functioning, nausea,
and vomiting.4 Many of these individuals cannot use a computer with an LED display. LED electronic
billboards violate our constitutional right to visual freedom, stealing our thoughts and creating barriers
to access for those who have photosensitive sensitive epilepsy, migraines, autism, PTSD, and traumatic
brain injury. An LED billboard in public view is unacceptably dangerous and discriminatory.
Recent research proves that the switch to LED lighting has drastically increased light pollution
due to the directed energy nature of the LED light source, and due to the use of high energy blue
wavelength light.5 Due to the rollout of LEDs, light pollution is now increasing at a rate of 10% per year,
up from the previous 2% per year. Artificial light at night is a major contributor to the risk of human
diseases such as prostate cancer, breast cancer, mood disorders, and premature births.6 A February 8,
2023 press release from the French National Academy of Medicine states, “Light is an electromagnetic
radiation that carries energy capable, by interacting with ocular tissues, regardless of age, of damaging
retinal photoreceptors.” and “Chronic exposure to LEDs induces photochemical cell damage that is
particularly harmful to the macular retina located in its center and ensuring fine vision, reading, writing
and colored vision.”7 Electronic displays present a significant ocular and circadian rhythm hazard and
safety risk to citizens and thus the installation or operation of LED displays in public spaces cannot be
justified. A March 16, 2023, study shows a direct correlation between artificial light at night and human
mortality.8 An LED billboard will literally kill the residents of Gilroy over time.
Therefore, given that LED billboards have no federal regulatory approval, and because OutFront
Media has no approval from the FDA to install or operate LED billboards, and because LED billboards
create discriminatory barriers that prevent equal access to city and state services such as roads and
sidewalks, and because certain individuals cannot neurologically tolerate LED visible radiation, and
because light pollution directly increases risk of disease and human mortality, the city of Gilroy must
permanently ban the operation of LED billboards to protect the comfort, health, safety, and civil rights
of all citizens.
Sincerely,
/s/ Mark Baker
President
Soft Lights Foundation
mbaker@softlights.org
4 http://www.softlights.org/stories/
5 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7781
6 http://www.softlights.org/human-health/
7 https://www.academie-medecine.fr/loeil-et-le-cerveau-des-enfants-et-des-adolescents-sous-la-lumiere-des-
ecrans/
8 https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-023-02822-w