The Darkness News Update for October 2, 2025

NAILD

Highlights from this episode:  - Health Studies  - New DarkSky Spots  - Action For the Birds  - Space Junk Intro and outro music by Doctor Turtle  Sponsored by The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors visit https://naild.org/  Headlines and Sources can be Found at www.RestoringDarkness.com

Transcript

00:00hi there i'm recording this on september 30th 2025 and that means two things uh i want to thank

00:10everyone who met with me at the convention of the national association of innovative lighting

00:16distributors last week and i want to say if you didn't meet me there uh you should show up for

00:21the next one because we're doing good work most of the time uh you can visit them at nail.org

00:26because of course they sponsored this little endeavor and they also sponsored and helped me

00:31put together the lighting specialist darkness restoration one training program which is

00:38specifically for lighting practitioners and specifically targeted at about approve improving

00:44the use of light at night in a way that respects everyone people animals trees everyone it's coming

00:55soon keep your eyes on your inboxes for that press release let's get into the news however because

01:01the gla university of india has released a paper in uh environmental management and it lists

01:10light pollution as an emerging pollutant this is a wide spectrum understanding of conservation

01:17and it talks about light pollution as something we need to fix if we want to go forward

01:24alan and health in the u.s we have a new study of alan and health in the u.s that shows that it's

01:30maybe too complicated to measure at like the big statistics letter level uh this is a chinese study

01:37using data from 3014 u.s counties and they had a lot of trouble actually linking light with health

01:46health outcomes due to well other health outcomes that tend to correlate with light pollution

01:53because it's all bound up together they did note that depression was linked with light pollution in many cases

02:00uh the university of wurtzburg has followed 176 women for 24 years and found that

02:07uh light at night is disrupting their menstrual cycles uh specifically as light changes they're falling

02:14out of sync with the general 28 day cycle uh really only hit coming back together at the end of the winter

02:24light pollution has also been determined to lead to excessive gestational weight gain

02:32uh the zunyi medical university is not fat shaming fetuses by any means they are just finding that high

02:39gestational weight is linked with a number of complications during pregnancy and during birth

02:44and that maybe excess light at night should be curbed to reduce that excess gestational weight gain

02:53chronic insomnia has been linked with cognitive decline this is a mayo clinic study that followed

02:5920 750 participants uh all of them over 60 over the course of five years and they showed not only declines

03:07alongside sleep time decline but also general changes in risk factor to cognitive impairment long term

03:16circadian stability is key to neurodevelopmental disorder management this is a ucla study of mice

03:24that found that um mice that were induced to have neurodevelopmental issues

03:31did better if their sleep-wake cycles were well managed your gut microbiome has circadian rhythm

03:41sichuan university has noticed activity changes in the individual microbes in your intestine

03:48and they are not entirely sure what that means exactly but it does mean that maybe

03:53we could use that in the treatment of depression maybe another chinese study has found that winter light

04:00therapy boosts mental health in chinese teens uh this is a study a year-long study of 1500 students

04:07that showed that they were offered some lighting interventions and they fared better in the control

04:12group particularly in the winter when they might be experiencing something like seasonal affective disorder

04:18sleepiness has been linked with skin temperature an attempt to find an objective tiredness metric

04:27because right now when we talk about tiredness or fatigue it's all about suggests subjective reporting

04:33and we have a very thorough metric for that but um we need something more objective something that

04:39doesn't depend on perception and what they found is that if you ask people to report their subjective

04:45fatigue and then also remember uh measure the temperature of their skin at the same time

04:51uh that that surface temperature does correlate with the reported tiredness which could improve sleep

04:56studies overall hospital workers in jordan are self-medicating with sleep aids uh this is a study that

05:03shows half of residents uh being the rank of doctor the the rank of doctor uh they are using over-the-counter

05:10options and the study calls for greater sleep health plans for hospital staff bats in new zealand are doing

05:19better under amber led this is new research conducted on the north island that found that bats

05:25well were most active based on based on vocalizations in areas with no light amber lighting

05:34did fare better in terms of activity than blue rich standard white light light pollution is increasing tiger

05:43mosquito activity this is a study conducted in st louis missouri that found that day active mosquitoes are

05:50switching to nighttime nighttime activity based on light and heat it's worth noting that the tiger mosquito

05:58spreads yellow figure dengue fever chikungunya fever the isutuvia virus and probably also zika

06:06salvador barra has published the light pollution regulations in the kingdom of spain challenges and

06:13perspectives this is a new preprint analyzing what really needs to happen to change light pollution laws

06:19in spain and that is available for download right now link in the description kawaii has launched a new

06:25bird protection program the pacific missile range facility in manna is planning new lighting changes

06:32for fledgling fledgling season in that area we have to deal with the endangered newels shearwater

06:40and the endangered hawaiian petrel uh this started on monday and it's going to continue through till

06:46december 15th lapalala wilderness nature reserve is the first park recognized by dark sky international

06:53in south africa it covers 48 000 hectares 1700 lamps and this area is home to two wilderness lodges for

07:04tourists and also it is a habitat for five major endangered species including the black rhino the

07:10white rhino the african wild dog and the pangolin nasabi new zealand is the country's first dark sky

07:18community the town is a tourist town it's home to 150 year-round residents but does serve 3 000

07:25tourists each summer which is coming up real soon in new zealand in north carolina two uh two lodgings

07:33two two ranches two dude ranches the cataloochee ranch and the swag have earned a dark sky approved

07:40lodging status these are both near great smoky mountains national park between the two of them

07:45they cover a little more than a thousand acres there we go in virgin utah they are back at the

07:53debate the debate table at town council again considering a dark sky bylaw because they have

08:00a bunch of grants to deal with in terms of budget allocations and that could be spent on exterior

08:06lighting cottonwood texas has is beginning to seek a dark sky designation with a new ordinance coming

08:14online this will come along with 500 fines per day for newer buildings that don't comply

08:21migration season continues with hundreds of millions of birds making their way south for the winter

08:27which means we have advocacy campaigns going ahead in north texas all of oregon all of illinois

08:33college station texas is doing their own part and in rally north carolina the town is actually

08:38turning off non-essential lights run by the municipality in the hopes that residents and

08:44businesses will follow their cue bel air texas is debating sign variances with new businesses provoking

08:51questions about operation and size miami florida has approved a 10-story led billboard but it does have

09:00to be off between 11 p.m and 6 a.m and the ambient lighting has to be less than a third of a foot candle

09:05when measured from 250 feet away uh turtle unsafe lighting in glenn county georgia is still on uh this

09:15is the buckies at the i-95 station it's still visible from 12 miles away from the beach in las vegas the

09:23latter-day saints have broken ground on a new temple in uh lone mountain this has been um the subject of

09:32lighting this this has been subject to lighting complaints and proposals for a few years but it is

09:39going ahead in belgium harold becke is switching over their street lighting plan to from dark after

09:4711 to just dim after eight they've changed their plan so previously all street lighting was off after

09:5311 now they're just going to cut uh the brightness by a considerable percentage after eight the energy

09:59savings should be about the same but there is just a bit more light for people in essex county in the

10:05uk they are going back to full night lighting there's no actual crime data to support the change

10:11but uh people just want to feel safe when they're asleep again i really would like it if just these

10:19decisions were left to people who were actually awake at night but they don't have time to go to town

10:25council meetings because those happen during the day the morning people are deciding everything

10:31for us and we need to talk about that privilege being taken away from them

10:36the fcc is reducing their environmental oversight in space they believe that this is an international

10:45concern not a u.s concern even though they're the ones regulating the telecommunications that are

10:53in low orbit now they are trying to have their cake and eat it too they want to launch as many

11:00satellites as possible so that a handful of companies can control 5g connectivity in rural regions which

11:06means no one has to dig fiber optic cables even though the government's been paying internet providers

11:11to dig fiber optic cables in more regions and this is just an abdication of responsibility on top of

11:19an active abdication of responsibility dark sand international the american astronomical society

11:25and the american bird conservancy have all registered complaints with this ruling because if you're gonna

11:30put things in space you have to be responsible for them guys meanwhile vodafone specifically has been

11:38accused of ruining sky views they're entering the low orbit 5g connectivity market and that plan is

11:45drawing the same complaints as everyone who enters the low orbit connectivity market lastly walmart stores

11:52are not switching their lighting over to 10 000 k that's just a weird internet rumor what they're

11:59actually going to do is keep their lighting at about 4 000 k unless you go during sensory friendly

12:04hours which more stores are adopting if you've never been i suggest you try it it's pretty relaxing

12:10anyway i've been scott walker i want to thank you for your time your attention i will be back in two weeks

12:16take care of yourself see ya

12:19you

12:40you

12:53you

12:55you

12:59you

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