January 1999 New Hampshire Citizens for Responsible Lighting Newsletter


December has been a quiet month, the NHCRL light pollution abatement bill is being revised and formatted by state researchers for introduction to the 1999 legislature this month.


There are several hurdles the proposed bill must jump, and you can be a major player in these upcoming events (else it won't pass). Here is an outline:

The proposed bill was submitted to the State House by our primary sponsor Rep. Gagnon. It was given an 'LSR Number' for study. Our LSR Number is 328.

The proposal was reviewed by State House Lawyers for discrepancies and we are 'OK'.

The bill is being revised by state bill writers to meet to format required for the congress.


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The bill needs to have 5 representatives and 5 senators co-sponsor by mid-January it to be viable, here is the place we need help! There are many representatives in the state, but only a few senators, we need NHCRL members to approach these senators and ask for co-sponsership support. Contact NHCRL Vice President Mike Pelletier via E-mail at 'mike_pelletier@tcsmail.tcs.teradyne.com' and he will tell you who the senator is in your area and how to make contact. All the senator has to do is say 'yes' when asked to co-sponser.


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The proposal will go before a State House Committee for study. ** Sponsors for the bill will be gathered by our primary sponsor of the proposal.


**At that time, we will need everyone's help in appearing to speak to the committee when the proposal is heard and presented in committee. You may not be given much notice but neither would we. You may have to take a few hours off from work to speak.**


If the Committee approves the proposal and it becomes a bill, then the whole House and Senate will vote on it. If they pass it, then the Governor will hopefully sign it into law.

What can you do right now? We need sponsors for the proposal but must be careful how we approach State Representatives and Senators. If you have a good friend or relative who is a legislator, we would like to ask them to help us. Please contact us and then we can plan with you how to approach this legislator.



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Manchester



A NHCRL member requested information on where they could buy full cutoff lighting, they had had no success in the local home stores. We would like to compile a list of stores that have the proper lighting fixtures for sale statewide, please E-mail the name, address, and town of any stores in your area that you are aware of that carry full cut-off lighting for sale to the public for our database.



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This Tucson AZ area issue is going to set the pace for light pollution abatement for the entire United States / please add your name to the petition at the Web site listed.

Lawyers for a housing developer have demanded astronomers and their institutions (Harvard, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and the United States Naval Observatory) cease and desist their informational activities about the housing developement and it's damage to the observatory site on Mount Hopkins, adding: "Take your heads out of the sand and recognize the reality that development will inevitably occur in the vicinity of Mount Hopkins."

For the rest of the story see: http://www.treefort.org/~sykes/


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Re-published by permission
Sunday Boston Globe November 6 1998

'Do you really want to go out on a summer night and see an orange sky?' Mike Stebbins, 'light pollution' foe

Effort aims to get some dark back in the night
By Clare Kittredge Globe Correspondent


Manchester -


There's magic in the night sky. Unless an orange glow blots out the stars. There's comfort in a lamplit street. Barring light so harsh it feels like a high-crime zone.

You've heard of noise pollution, air pollution, water pollution and even odor pollution. Now comes Stephen Forbes heading up a new grass-roots group targeting "light pollution."

"Do we want to look like the Bronx? Or Brooklyn? Or Chicago? Or New Hampshire?" demands Forbes, a Manchester locksmith and amateur astronomer.

But look at a satellite photo of the United States at night and the East Coast is a glowing blob of light, more and more of New Hampshire included, he says.

"Cleveland has a smaller light footprint than the Manchester-Concord-Salem area," Forbes notes.

"From below Washington, D.C., across New York through Boston and up [Interstate] 93, it's a swath of light. It dies in Concord," he says. "In the old days, they called it a megalopolis. We want to make it comfortable for people, so they don't have to paint their windows black."

The new group is called New Hampshire Citizens for Responsible Lighting.

Its mission: to reduce light pollution and "light trespass," educate folks about responsible glare-free lighting and preserve the beauty of New Hampshire's night skies.

The message: less is more.

"We're trying to save the night sky from light pollution," explained Mike Stebbins, the group's secretary. A computer programmer and astronomy buff, Stebbins got involved because he can't see the Milky Way from his home in Manchester any more. "Do you really want to go out on a summer night and see an orange sky? Is this living?"

Mike Pelletier, the group's vice president, got involved because a "cobra head" street light blasts all night into his house.

"Walk out any night of the year in downtown Manchester and you can see your shadow," said Pelletier, an electrical engineer. "In Nashua it's even worse."

Already, the three-week-old grass-roots group has 63 members and is attracting "a surprising" amount of attention, reports Forbes.

Next week, a Manchester lawmaker plans to file a bill drawn up by the group that would require outdoor street lighting or advertising lighting to be shielded so it doesn't glare uselessly into people's eyes or throw waste light up into the sky.

Republican Representative Eugene Gagnon, who has agreed to sponsor the bill, says it's time to focus on light pollution.

So far, the new group reports hearing from Audubon Society members worried about birds distracted by lights, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, concerned about trees.

"The Manchester Planning Board wants to talk to us. We put on a presentation for the town of Hillsborough," said Forbes, also a computer engineer and former bail bondsman. "We have citizens calling us right and left: 'Help! A building just put this bright light outside my window!'"

"The state astronomy society called us out because their observatory is based in Hillsborough, and Hillsborough is getting lighter," said Stebbins.

The plan is to meet with state officials soon. "It's going to be an information session," said Stebbins. "There's no extra cost for making lighting the right way. They said they'd never talked to anyone about light pollution."

Light pollution is a security issue, a waste issue and an environmental issue, the group says.

On the security front, people automatically think more light equals more safety. Not so, says the group.

"On safety there's a misconception that more is better," says Forbes. "If you're driving by an ATM and this bright light glares out at you, can you see what's in the shadows? Yet anybody in the shadows can see you."

Some studies show that vandalism increases with light, the group says. "You see kids hanging out under street lights, not on dark streets," says Stebbins.

About waste, lighting highway signs from the bottom up blasts light into the sky and doesn't work if it snows. American cities and towns waste an estimated $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year shining lights in the wrong places and into the sky, the group says.

A major benefit of conserving light, says Forbes, is cutting electric consumption and reducing energy costs - especially in this state, which has some of the nation's highest electric rates, he says.

As for the environment, trees don't function properly in perpetual light, the group says. Let alone people. "Plants react poorly to consistent lighting" says Forbes. "They never get a chance to sleep. Guess what? The trees know when it's night, too. No plant was designed to be in light 24 hours a day. There has always been a night cycle on this planet. The whole ecosystem was designed with a night cycle. There has to be a point where we get rest from the light."

Some of the offenders are "wall packs," high intensity light sitting on a building and throwing out light. "It's cheap, broad coverage," said Forbes. "On factories, hotels, bank buildings." Others are called "cobra lights."

Forbes says some sports facilities are so lit up they have caused traffic accidents. Car dealerships often scour the sky with search lights. Highway and street lights can be too high up. Schools, businesses, malls, car dealers often leave their lights on all night.

"Why would they leave blazing, blinding lights on all night?" said Forbes. "Are you going to shop for a car at 3 a.m.?"

The light pollution problem has been growing since World War II, said Forbes. "It just became a bad habit," he said.

Lately, the group's environmental claims were bolstered by the Oct. 17 issue of Science News.

The cover story is entitled "Night Lights and Cancer." An article headlined

"Does Light Have a Dark Side?" mentions recent studies suggesting a link between exposure to light at night, melatonin deprivation, and cancer.

Although the group's focus is New Hampshire, it's Web page at www.mv.com/users/lopez/nhcrl links to other groups with exotic names like the International Dark-Sky Association.

The New England Light Pollution Advisory Group is a five-year-old volunteer group formed to raise awareness of light pollution issues. The International Dark-Sky Association, based in Tucson, just turned 10.

Although the dark-sky movement is stronger in the West, other New England states are getting into the act.

In Maine, Kennebunkport has a law protecting the night sky, said Forbes. "Massachusetts is on the verge of enacting a law now," he said of a bill that was backed by the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Light polluters are not malicious, the group says. "As areas come out of ruralness, they put up lights because it's a sign of progress," said Stebbins. "Then it gets out of control. It's an unthinking thing."

Conversely, good lighting keeps light from splaying too far out to the sides, the group says.

"We tell people to drive around at night. The good lights light are area, like sidewalks, pathways, and it looks pleasing - not like a high-crime area," said Stebbins. "Bad light shines in your eyes and looks like a crime zone."

"The element of the bulb should not be visible from the ground," he explains. "Any light fixture where you can see the element is bad because the glare is blinding you. For example, a bank in Manchester put security lights all around the edge of its parking lot but you can't see past the lights - it's like staring into a flash bulb. They're trying to make the parking lot safer, but in fact they're making it less safe."

Ideal is a "full cutoff" fixture, says Forbes. But existing lights can be easily and cheaply adjusted, he says.

"If you control the light and put it where it's wanted, you don't need as much light to do the same job," he says.

"We don't want to send everybody back into the caves," said Forbes. "We're just trying to introduce the common sense and frugality for which New England is known." 



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Mike Stebbins               
   nhas@compuserve.com
New Hampshire Citizens for Responsible Lighting