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Blue Light Like That From Smartphones Linked To Some Cancers, Study Finds (cnn.com)
A new study, published Monday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that exposure to the kind of blue light emitted by outdoor LEDs, smartphones and tablets may increase your risk of breast or prostate cancer. The study compared previous exposure to artificial lights at night between approximately 2,000 breast or prostate cancer patients and approximately 2,000 controls living in Barcelona and Madrid. Slashdot reader al0ha writes: This study seems to say that exposure to LED light temperatures higher than 3,000 Kelvin suppresses melatonin because it contains increased blue light, and at least one city (Davis, California) has gone to the expense of removing higher temperature LED lights and replacing them with ones that have lower color temperatures. Specifically, the study found that "those exposed to high levels of outdoor blue light at night had around a 1.5-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer and a twofold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, compared with those who were less exposed," reports CNN. "Men exposed to high levels of indoor artificial light also had 2.8-fold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, according to the study."
They have the proposed mechanism: blue light causes your body to produce less melanin, which means less protection against natural sunlight. It is a hypothesis worth testing, anyway.
The story is about melatonin, the sleep-related hormone, not about melanin, the skin pigment.
Hence this is not about sunlight protection, but about weak sleep quality, which is already known to be statically linked to cancer
I don't know about cancer, but just for the sake of your eyes, get F.lux!
It automatically dials down the blue component of your screen at night (with a gradual transition). At the very beginning, it takes a minute or so to get used to, and might look weird.
BUT! After using it for a couple of hours at night, I dare you to vidit a webpage with a white background, and turn it off for a second. Your eyes will hurt, and you will notice that looking at a monitor is like staring into a lightbulb at night. It's really painful.
Please, just get F.lux!
It's not that blue light that damages breast or prostate tissue directly. It's neurologically-mediated endocrine changes that have been well documented now for decades. It's only more recently that those endocrine changes have been linked to cancer.
The chain of causation is blue light -> retina -> optic nerve -> suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus -> pineal gland -> {disrupted hormones including melatonin and serotonin} -> {multiple and widespread physiological disturbances including disturbed sleep and chronic inflammation} -> {breast and prostate cell damage, precise mechanisms unknown}.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Well, that is one factor.
But actually the chain of bullshit is MUCH longer here.
Basically, it is know that too much 'blue end' spectrum light can mess with your melatonin levels, as well as other sleep triggers (including psychological..)
So then you end up with less sleep, more stress, opprer general body health.
And then you see a rise in some cancer rates.
And its all the fault of Blue light! From Smartphones! no, really!
Its the blue light, not the stressing about peoples thoughts on your current instabookshite, not the being interrupted at 11pm with a work message, not
stressing about your mortgage, not worrying if you can survive in the 'gig' economy.
No, its because the smartphone screen is a little the wrong colour.
They obviously need more funding. I bet they could link it to heart disease, suicide rates, hair loss, divorce rates, and child abuse if they tried a little harder!
Perhaps just go with 'Thing everyone is doing right now linked to all bad things in their lives', that way they dont need to rewrite it every few years.
Gives new meaning to B.S.O.D...