Blue streetlights may prevent crime, suicide

December 10, 2008 The Yomiuri Shimbun

Blue streetlights are believed to be useful in preventing suicides and street crime, a finding that is encouraging an increasing number of railway companies to install blue light-emitting apparatus at stations to prevent people from committing suicide by jumping in front of trains.

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• makotech222 - Dec 10, 2008
  • Rank: 2.4 / 5 (7)
  lulz i never heard of this before.
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• superhuman - Dec 10, 2008
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  Anecdotal evidence is useless, only experiments with proper controls and statistical analysis can prove anything.
  
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• Truth - Dec 10, 2008
  • Rank: 3.6 / 5 (7)
  Is this why physorg's general layout scheme and links are in the blue region...?
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• Bob_B - Dec 10, 2008
  • Rank: 2.5 / 5 (4)
  Like the K-mart Special light?
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• Eco_R1 - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 2.3 / 5 (6)
  try installing blue street lights in South Africa, crime will not decrease, it will actually increase crime because there will be one more thing to take....blue street lights!
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• Nartoon - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
  That's funny. Many years ago most street
  lights in Canada were bluish, then they
  changed to the more efficient sodium bulbs
  which give off an orange colour. What goes
  around comes again.
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• magpies - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 2 / 5 (4)
  Does that mean blue star galaxys have no crime? I think personaly that having all different kinds of lights would be best for reminding people what crime is. Blue lights probably just slow down our vision of crimes that happen because they relax us to the point that we don't care what happens. But if we get too relaxed I will have to punish us myself I guess...
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• bmcghie - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (3)
  I really dislike the sodium vapour lamps... they give off a hideous hue at night. The halogen ones, that give of a whiter light with a blue corona, are much nicer. More expensive too... and I get the feeling they don't do much about crime either. I want SOLID stats or double blind experiments to prove this rubbish. :)
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• RigorMan - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (5)
  This website, aside from nice science news, boasts an enormous number of publicity-related fake-science articles. Do they realize that they readership does not want them?
  
  Only well-conducted experiments and mathematically proven formulas can lead to the truth. Rumors don't.
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• JerryPark - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (3)
  I have always believed that the sodium vapor lights cause an increase in distress and behavior issues.
  
  It has long been known that lighting absent blue wavelengths, such as sodium vapor lamps, cause nausea and other symptoms of distress.
  
  Restoring blue wavelengths to area lighting is reasonable.
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• zafouf - Dec 11, 2008
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  Naw, it's because those nauseating pumpkin sodium lights are depressing. Replace them with anything and people will feel better.
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• Iztaru - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (2)
  Perhaps they just added lights where there were none before. Lighting always helps to prevent/reduce crime.
  
  

  Only well-conducted experiments and mathematically proven formulas can lead to the truth.

  
  
  Actually, mathematically proven formulas are just a convenience to describe the truth, not the truth itself.
  
  
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• GIR - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (6)

  Anecdotal evidence is useless, only experiments with proper controls and statistical analysis can prove anything.
  

  
  
  I wouldn't suggest that in this scenario. Lining up suicidal people by train tracks to see how many hop on in blue vs other lighting schemes is a little hard to justify. :P
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• ShadowRam - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
  Just the natural real white lighting would be better.
  
  It seems 'bluish' because we are un-used to actual white light.
  
  I always feel better when entering one of my rooms that I have illuminated with real white bulbs.
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• Rdavid - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 2 / 5 (1)
  Understanding Japanese culture, one way to validate this idea is to wait for the Japanese to adopt and practice "bluelight" suicide.
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• Velanarris - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 2 / 5 (4)

  Just the natural real white lighting would be better.
  
  It seems 'bluish' because we are un-used to actual white light.
  
  I always feel better when entering one of my rooms that I have illuminated with real white bulbs.

  So tanning salons exclusively?
  
  Blue is the color of law enforcement world wide. There is a strong connection between authority and the color blue across most cultural lines. It's more likely that the ble lights inspire thoughts of authority, and performing acts contrary to authority seem like less of a good idea.
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• Stratford - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
  Don't be too quick to dismiss anecdotal evidence. No, it's not science and often is totally wrong (like "proving" something on the basis of correlation with another phenomenon). You neet to keep in mind that anecdotal evidence often leads to well-designed, controlled experiments. What is today's anecdotal evidence often results in tomorrow's scientific breakthrough.
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• Roach - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 3.5 / 5 (4)
  I'm all for the anecdotal evidence, but most suicides/crimes are commited from some sort of comfort zone. Changing the light color to Blue changes the comfort level. Once people are used to it again, the numbers will probably go right back. Let's hear back this time two years from now, or ten.
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• agg - Dec 11, 2008
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  anecdotal evidence isn't useless, it's often a catalyst for scientific discovery.
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• MGraser - Dec 11, 2008
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (1)
  I think Roach is right. I think the blue light seems harsher to us at first and causes a bit of confusion, as it were, as we adjust. If it becomes the norm in lighting, we will no longer need to adjust and the benefits will be gone.
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• DGBEACH - Dec 13, 2008
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  ...so what OTHER colors have they tried to be able to say that THIS one works best?
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• Keter - Dec 13, 2008
  • Rank: 4501 / 5 (2)
  I agree strongly with the posters who said the orange light is ugly and irritating. I hate it. Of course anything that is irritating will increase the likelihood of bad behavior. I welcome the return of blue light.
  
  As an aside, I believe that blue light does not propagate as well as orange light, and thus produces less light pollution - a boon to stargazers. Now if I could just get my new neighbor to turn off the 200 outdoor lights he installed a couple of months ago - he leaves them on all night. *groan*
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• user99 - Dec 15, 2008
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (2)

  ...so what OTHER colors have they tried to be able to say that THIS one works best?

  
  
  Exactly. What you are seeing is a campaign by lighting manufacturers to get municipalities to buy newer Metal Halide (bluish) lights to replace older Sodium (golden) lights.
  Since the bluish Metal Halide is as harsh and unnatural as the Sodium they want to replace, the lighting industry comes up with this bogus "science" that blue light has so many benefits like preventing crime or suicide.
  
  In reality, MH lighting is garish, cold, ininviting, disrupts human circadian rhythms and 3-4 times more of a "light polluter" that their warmer counterparts. (look up Rayleigh Scatter).
  
  This is not science, it's marketing.
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