Study shows the influence of nighttime lighting on the development of allergies
Tragically, many people no longer know dark nights. If you’re not lucky enough to live in a relatively quiet, rural location, you can’t even see the stars at night because we humans light our cities so brightly. We call this man-made problem “Light pollution“.
Light pollution not only robs us of the beauty of the starry sky, but can even make us sick. Like that German health portal recently reported, researchers in a large Meta-analysis has now observed a connection between frequent nighttime lighting and the development of certain allergies.
Through the Evaluation of 12 individual studies The researchers were able to determine the probabilities of developing allergies that were related to the type of exposure to nighttime lighting.
- People of the chronotype “Owl(those who are awake late into the night and therefore get more nighttime light) have a 35 percent higher risk of allergies
- People who regularly work night shifts have a 33 percent higher risk of allergies
- People exposed to artificial light at night (e.g. from night lights, televisions, screens) had an 88 percent higher risk of allergies
The type of allergy also seems to be related to nighttime lighting and light pollution. Anyone who is exposed to artificial light at night has an increased risk of developing it from certain allergies, such as
- allergic rhinitis (89 percent)
- Asthma (62 percent)
- Skin allergies (11 percent)