The artificial/accelerated aging effects of ultra-filtered sunlight
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Like processed food, ultra-filtered sunlight removes essential components that impact our quality of life. Living exclusively in artificial light ages us faster than full spectrum sunlight. Full spectrum of sunlight is needed to support immune, hormonal, metabolic,reproductive, and neurological health. This disproportionately affects children, pregnant women, people with dark skin, and the elderly.
Less than half of the sun's solar radiation is in the visible spectrum.
Window glass blocks ultra violet B (UVB) sunlight needed for production of vitamin D. and most likely impacts other biological processes thathas not yet been recognized. Visible light is not just for seeing and circadian entrainment. Just a dozen of so minutes of sunlightcan restore our vitamin D levels.
The latest window pane technologies allow buildings to block the largestcomponent of sunlight, which is the ultraviolet light. The UV portion of the solar spectrum produces the green house effect which causes the interior of cars, greenhouses and the like to become superheated relative to the ambient temperature. For office buildings, the green house effects puts an energy burden on the building's cooling systems.
There is growing evidence linking ultra-filtered sunlight to various health issues. -The best controlled experiment (and unintentional experiment) is revealed in the before and after photographs of a female astronaut, Suni Williams,who spent a year in an unnatural space environment.It is impossible to determine how much of her aging was related to being in a low gravitational environment and how much is related to living with artificial lighting 24/7/365. I am wondering if the harm caused by ignoring the importance of the full solar spectrum is worth it.
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How effective are the E-glass windows at reducing the UV spectrum of sunlight? The infrared photographs in this article sheds some light on the answer. As always, it best to read the article and view all of the images.
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Full spectrum light bulbs (aka grow lights) are quite easy to get but is there anything specific to look out in regards to window panes?
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@pittybitty -The so called "full spectrum bulbs" are not really full spectrum like sunlight. They are arguably full visible spectrum when compared to standard LED lights but they emit comparitively little light inn the far infrared spectrum.
https://greensarawak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/solar_radiation_spectrum.jpgIn addition, the full spectrum bulbs still have a blue peak. The peak is better balanced (within the visible spectrum) than standar LED bulbs becasue of the peaks of other colors.
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@pittybitty said in The artificial/accelerated aging effects of ultra-filtered sunlight:
Full spectrum light bulbs (aka grow lights) are quite easy to get
I find it easier to get sunlight than grow bulbs.
Sunlight is much more intense than the light emanating from the bulbs. Grow lights are typically positioned very close the plants to get the best results.
The image in Fgure 4(d) posted above shows how rapidly the incandescent light fades from it source. I would expect the same from grow lights.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_intensityWinndow pane glass filters the portion of sunlight that the body uses to make vitamin D. If you go outside for 10-20 minuts during the day you can make enough vitamin D.
The manufacturers of e-glass are charging a hefty premium for this specialty glass. I would expect that home buliders would not want to build using this glass.
