Speaker Series: Blinded by the Light Perils & Pitfalls of LEDs

Speaker Mark Baker, Founder and President of the Soft Lights Foundation

Original presentation: October 9, 2024

Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s (FOMB) first presentation of their 28th annual Winter Speaker Series, Blinded by the Light-Perils & Pitfalls of LED’s features Mark Baker, founder and president of the Soft Lights Foundation. Winter Speaker Series presentations are again being held via Zoom and are accessible via hyperlink at the top of the FOMB web page: www.fomb.org. This event takes place Wednesday, October 9th at 7 pm.

Mark’s presentation covers the topic of electromagnetic radiation and the impacts of Light Emitting Diodes on human and environmental health. He will discuss the physics of LEDs, the impacts of artificial light on biological systems, the reports of harm from exposure to LED light, and the legal and regulatory structure for LED products. You will learn what makes this type of lighting different as well as blinding, why claims of LED efficiency are misleading and why this light causes most of us to at least avert our eyes and for some of us, even stimulates seizures.

Most recently, on September 23rd 2024, Baker filed a lawsuit against the US Food and Drug Administration and US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for failing to protect the public from hazardous and dangerous LED headlights. (https://www.softlights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Mark-Baker-v-FDA-NHTSA_Filed.pdf) Over 60,000 individuals have signed a public petition to ban blinding headlights. (https://www.change.org/p/u-s-dot-ban-blinding-headlights-and-save-lives). Members of the public have submitted over 200 pages of comments to NHTSA describing the debilitating and often life-threatening impacts of LED headlights. (https://www.softlights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Petition-Comments-2024.pdf). Mr. Baker’s lawsuit seeks to compel the FDA and NHTSA to collaborate and cooperate, as required by law, to address the LED headlight crisis.

Mark Baker has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a computer programmer for 20+ years and a middle school math teacher for over 10 years. Mark has been involved in the effort to protect people from LED light since 2016 and founded the Soft Lights Foundation as a 501(c)(3) non-profit registered in the state of Oregon in 2021. This foundation is now one of the world’s leading advocacy groups protecting people from the harms of Visible Light radiation emitted by Light Emitting Diodes and for the protection of the natural night as a resource.

FOMB hosts their Winter Speaker Series October-May, on the second Wednesday of each month. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic and ability for participants to attend from out of the area, the series continues via Zoom. The FOMB November 13th presentation: James Madison Kendall’s Wonderful Water Wheel!, features co-founder of the Tide Mill Institute, Bud Warren. This event takes place at 7:00 pm with the Zoom registration link available at www.fomb.org a week or so prior to the presentation.