Ivins & Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine Take the Lead in Improving Nighttime Health & Safety

The Ivins City Council took groundbreaking action this evening on what we believe to be the lead nationally in dramatically improving nighttime health and safety for Ivins residents with changes to its outdoor lighting ordinance.

The Ivins City Council gets an overview of the recommendations for changes to the city’s Outdoor Lighting Ordinance from Mike Scott with the Ivins Night Sky Initiative.

The city now requires that the maximum color temperature for all new outdoor non-residential lighting is 3,000 degrees Kelvin, down from 4,000. But more importantly, these new lights will be required to add amber filters the city designed that effectively reduces the color temperature to about 2,200 degrees Kelvin, eliminating almost all the blue light emitted by LEDs that creates safety and health problems. Outdoor lighting for new residential development will be limited to no more than 2,700 degrees Kelvin.

Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine (RVUCOM) is going even further.

The city’s new requirements only affect new construction, but RVUCOM has begun a study sponsored by the Ivins Night Sky Initiative to see if these new requirements can be effectively retrofitted into existing lighting while continuing to meet the university’s need to provide nighttime safety for their students. The study will also look for a solution to another problem magnified by LEDs: unwanted glare.

Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Ivins campus.

The City has long required outdoor lighting to be fully shielded, meaning light fixtures can’t aim light up into the sky. But even fully shielded fixtures send light out horizontally as well as down. That not only wastes light by sending it where it isn’t needed, it creates a glare problem.

RVUCOM’s study will help others determine the feasibility of retrofitting their own lighting to reduce blue light and glare. It will also help the city in its efforts to get designated as a Dark Sky Community by the International Dark Sky Association.

What’s the big deal?

LED lighting is quickly replacing High Pressure Sodium lights and other older technologies because LEDs are so much more energy efficient. You can easily spot the difference. The older technologies produce a softer, warmer, more comfortable light compared to the bright white light from LEDs. That’s because LEDs emit a lot of blue light while the older technologies emit very little, if any blue light.

Blue light rays have short wavelengths just above ultraviolet light. We’ve known for a long time that ultraviolet light can be harmful. It can burn. That’s why we wear sunscreen. We’re learning that too much blue light can also be harmful.

  • The blue part of the light spectrum is responsible for creating most of the glare we see. Glare constricts your pupils, diminishing your eyes’ ability to adapt to low-light conditions, like nighttime.
  • Scientists are just beginning to understand the negative impacts on health, including blue light’s contribution to cardiovascular disease, sleep, metabolic and immunological disorders, obesity, cancer, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and more.
  • And blue light is disruptive to plants, animals, crop pollination, and on and on.

How does the Ivins solution work?

Ivins City has found a way to use LED technology but take out most of the blue light. That eliminates the added health and safety risks from LEDs compared to older technologies and results in a warmer, more pleasing light.

Wilson Jimenez, the Ivins City employee who came up with the filter, finishes installing the prototype anti-glare shield on a light fixture for Rocky Vista University along with the three anti-blue spectrum filters.
Alan Koharcheck and Tim Povlick, members of the Ivins Night Sky Initiative, in the City’s shop with Wilson Jimenez making a final check of the prototype before unveiling it to the University.
Ivins Mayor Chris Hart shows the finished prototype to Kristine Jenkins , Rocky Vista University’s Director of Campus Operations and Terry Meyer, Manager of Public Safety and Security.
Tim Povlick, a member of the Ivins Night Sky Initiative’s Technical Committee, tests the finished prottype anti-glare shield.

For more information about the progress of this study, blue light health and safety issues, or other information about outdoor lighting, contact us or visit their website at IvinsNightSky.org. The Ivins Night Sky Initiative is a 100% volunteer, not for profit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, citizen organization. Also visit the International Dark Sky Association’s website at www.darksky.org.  For more information regarding Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine please visit the website at http://www.rvu.edu/.

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Join us

Let us know if this Initiative is important to you, if you are willing to get involved, and what else you think we should be doing to improve, preserve, and protect the night skies in Ivins.

Just because we have submitted recommendations for changes to the city’s Outdoor Lighting Ordinance doesn’t mean we’re done. Far from it. Seriously, far from it! We can really use your talent and energy to make our Initiative’s vision and goals a reality.

Email us and we will get back to you right away.