Recently domestic use of lighting products has been progressively replaced by the more efficient light sources of light emitting diodes (LED). About 270 million tons of CO2 per year would be saved if white LEDs replaced other traditional light sources, resulting in a tremendous ecological improvement and reducing greenhouse effects. However, the potential health risks of these new light sources need to be explored. Our previously published work showed that short wave length LED light of 450 nm or less induced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in C. elegans and also had significant effects on egg hatching, development, population, progeny, locomotion and survival. Current commercial white LED lighting products were found to contain different proportions of blue light spectra and therefor may have a different effect on ROS production and C. elegans biology and behavior. In this study we exposed C. elegans to three types of white LED lights, low, medium and highly enriched blue light for a full life cycle from eggs to adults at room temperature. Control treatments were kept in the dark. The results revealed that the low-blue enriched treatment effect was very much similar to control (dark exposure). It was evident that in the medium-blue enriched, the worms showed significant biological differences, however, the differences between exposed and control nematodes was much higher in the high-blue LED light. Generally blue enriched white LED light decreased the reproduction, caused late hatching and development to adults, slowed the locomotion, decreased heat and cold tolerance, and increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). All biological and behavioral effects on the nematode C. elegans were correlated to the level of blue enrichment in the white LED light.

Effects of exposure to light emitting diode (LED) using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans

255th National Meeting (2018)

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