VIRTUAL London.

Abstract

Excessive or improper lighting can severely affect human health and well-being. However, lighting is underrepresented in analyses of the interrelations between the urban environment and the health and well-being of communities. Lighting-related concerns are often conceptualised and discussed in environmental terms through the light pollution frame. Positively, this frame emphasises human responsibility for environmental detriment and animal harm and promotes the discussion of aesthetics and existential dimensions connected to nocturnal darkness. However, it is flawed with epistemological shortcomings and normativity and is keen to the risk of ideological and political polarisation. Furthermore, the light pollution frame only marginally accounts for the magnitude and severity of the health threat posed by excessive and improper lighting. Therefore, we advocate an incremental use of the light-public health framework to conceptualise and communicate lighting-related concerns. Placing light concerns within a public health framework entails presenting a relatively known landscape that adequately resonates with the value systems of virtually everyone. It promotes the creation of a common and multi-stakeholder space within the discussion on lighting policies to involve and balance considerations of urban security, safety, inclusivity, and accessibility as different dimensions of diverse populations’ health and well-being. Furthermore, we aim to map ethical principles relevant to lighting initiatives. The intention is not to prescribe how these principles should be prioritised or applied in decision-making, as such a task could only be performed with a proper appraisal of the context in which they are applied, but to outline ethical references to support policy and decision-making.