New initiative: Light for Public Health
13.11.2025 14:41
Light influences our sleep, well-being, and performance. Yet public awareness of its effects remains limited. The "Light for Public Health" initiative therefore aims to make evidence-based knowledge about light and health accessible to the general public, thereby putting scientific findings at the service of the public interest.
„Light not only serves vision, but is also an important signal for human biology,“ says Manuel Spitschan, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and professor at the Technical University of Munich, who chairs the „Light for Public Health“ initiative. „By bringing experts from the fields of light and health together, we can make health-promoting lighting conditions an integral part of global health policy and everyday life.“
To mark its launch, the initiative published 26 guiding principles reflecting the current scientific consensus on the influence of light on physiology and behavior. These statements were published as an open-access article in the journal BMJ Public Health and translated into 18 languages.
The "Light for Public Health" initiative emerged from the Ladenburg Discourse "Light for Health and Well-being," a forum for interdisciplinary research dialogue that took place in April 2024. The Light for Public Health Consortium, a network of international experts, serves as its scientific advisory board. Participating institutions include the International Commission on Illumination (Vienna), the Society for Light, Rhythms and Circadian Health (Philadelphia, USA), the Daylight Academy (Zurich, Switzerland), the Good Light Group (Eindhoven, Netherlands), and the Center for Environmental Therapeutics (New York, USA). Together, these world-leading research institutions are committed to promoting healthy light exposure in health policy, strategies for public spaces and buildings, and everyday life.
Original publication
Spitschan M, Kervezee L, Stefani O, Gordijn M, Veitch JA, Lok R. Evidence-based public health messaging on the non-visual effects of ocular light exposure: a modified Delphi expert consensus. BMJ Public Health. 2025;3:e003205. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjph-2025-003205