Pregledni rad
ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING AND ITS EFFECTS ON HEALTH
Mladen Martinis
; Institut Ruđer Bošković, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Vesna Mikuta-Martinis
; Institut Ruđer Bošković, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
SUMMARY: Futurologists foresee that 21st century societies shall be increasingly exposed to artificial lighting in the homes, work places, offices, research laboratories, hospitals, supermarkets, restaurants, nightclubs and many other places daily frequented by people. Artificial lighting has become part of modern life and a growing social, economic and health problem. The intensity, colour (spectrum) and length of exposure to artificial lighting affect the natural biological rhythms in the human body and their disturbances may cause a host of health problems including sleep disorders, indigestion, depression, as well as cancers of the breast, prostate and colon. This paper offers a brief introduction on artificial lighting and related health problems and goes on to analyse the spectrums of some commonly used artificial light sources, with a special focus on the UV and blue spectrum component. Further, it offers information on the incidence of some tumours caused by prolonged exposure to artificial light, held responsible for a decreased production of the hormone of darkness – melatonin.
Ključne riječi
artificial lighting; light pollution; biological rhythm; tumours; melatonin
Hrčak ID:
24971
URI
Datum izdavanja:
7.7.2008.
Posjeta: 3.633 *