Great Neck News columnist, Karen Rubin, in her 2/16/2018 report entitled “G.N.’s Foray into Smart Cities Tech,” included numerous examples of misinformation too many to describe.
I will make every attempt, however, to identify the most critical misstatements. From what I have seen of Ms. Rubin’s weekly column, it is written as an Op Ed piece as opposed to hard news investigative reporting.
Her recent attempt at reporting on Smart City technology and LEDs, on the other hand, required her to carefully investigate facts, both scientific and medical. This she obviously did not do.
Ms. Rubin, as a reporter, has a grave responsibility to present the facts as best she can—and not to go out of her way to distort them due to a hidden agenda.
She also has a responsibility to attribute statements to specific individuals only if she has heard or seen such statements made by those individuals. Ms. Rubin has fallen far short on both these counts with respect to her presentation of LED streetlights and the Smart Cities wireless system that has been up and running in the Village of Great Neck since Jan. 3. There is, in this community, a vast lack of understanding of the science and biology related to these lights.
With her recent column, Ms. Rubin has spewed misinformation, without fact-checking of any kind, thereby damaging the credibility of those who have worked tirelessly to raise the public’s awareness.
No doubt, the end result is much confusion by the general public and elected decision makers – the very people Ms. Rosenthal and I hoped to enlighten.
Those of us who have been actively engaged in an on-going public awareness campaign to educate village officials, and the public, about LED lights deserve nothing less than an apology from Ms. Rubin, and a formal retraction of her misleading and wildly inaccurate statements.
- The total cost of the LEDs plus Smart Cities installation in the Village of Great Neck is greater than $600,000, NOT $350,000, as Ms. Rubin erroneously stated. Over and above the $250,000 government grant, the Village of Great Neck has provided greater than $350,000 from its own funds to complete this project. Karen, get your basic facts straight.
- I am completely misquoted by Ms. Rubin. She attributes the following statement to me: “…Mayor Bral…is running our village like a dictatorship.” I never said anything like that. I would never say anything like that. All my statements regarding the LED installation have been limited to recommendations about the specific qualities of the LED lights in order to have the best outcome for the community. I have never made a derogatory comment about Mayor Bral. Throughout this process, I have tried to be an ally and a valuable source of information to the mayor and trustees, in the hope that their having such information would enable them to make a careful and considered decision.
- Rubin states that there was “a lot of notice for complainants to attend…” In fact, no information at all was disseminated to residents that RealTerm Energy consultants would appear at the Feb. 6 VGN BOT meeting to answer questions and hear complaints. Why did Ms. Rubin believe otherwise?
- The Smart Cities wireless system will allow us to adjust the brightness of the new LED bulbs, which VGN Clerk, Joe Gill, is presently testing. The problem is, however, the majority of residents remain uninformed that they should be phoning Mr. Gill to request their lights be dimmed down. In the absence of phones ringing off the hook or residents crowding Village Hall, Mayor Bral mistakenly believes that everyone is happy and satisfied. But what effort is the village government taking in order to communicate the dimming capability? Certainly, we do not all read the Great Neck News cover to cover. I will acknowledge that the new bulbs, on some blocks, have been dimmed somewhat. Nevertheless, the majority of residential blocks and main thoroughfares remain, for me and many others, blindingly bright and unbearable. I now wear special blue-wavelength-blocking amber sunglasses when I go out at night, which I must do every night to walk my dogs. In her Feb. 16 column, Ms. Rubin declares that the lights are not too bright, as if her opinion is the only one that matters.
- Rubin wonders how LED streetlights can possibly be a health hazard. If she had read any of my previous submissions to this paper, she would have read that blue-rich light has already been proven harmful to our health. Thus, with years of cumulative exposure to these streetlights, damage may be done to our eyes, as well as disruption to our sleep cycle. This is not my personal opinion—it is the conclusion reached by many scientists and doctors. The dilemma we now facing is that these lights are still too new, so we can’t predict what dangers will lurk as the years go by. As an informed citizen who advocates caution with respect to the public’s health and welfare, it seemed prudent to delay the installation of the Village’s LED streetlights until a safer version (less blue-rich) became available.
- Let’s now discuss the issue of Kelvin. The higher the Kelvin measurement, the more blue-rich the light. We have both 3,000K and 4,000K bulbs installed. The fact is it is not possible to adjust our bulbs up or down in Kelvin. The AMA has recommended a maximum upper threshold of 3,000K. But remember – we had the option to go lower than 3,000K and follow the satisfactory outcomes already demonstrated in communities like Davis, California. That community and others like it who responded to citizen complaints installed 2,700K LED lights, which provide a warmer, more yellow light similar to our old bulbs. Despite the “reasons” given by RealTerm Energy, there was never any good reason to install 4,000K bulbs in our village! Even lighting manufacturers I spoke with agreed on that point.
- Rubin presents a totally garbled, incomprehensible description of the possible dangers of electromagnetic fields. No one has ever brought up the emission of electromagnetic fields by LED lights. What has been discussed is the emission of such fields by wireless networks. I won’t cover this any further, because whatever information Ms. Rubin presented is totally beside the point.
- Now to the issues of moonlight and sunlight. Regarding the moon, it is true that if one were to characterize the “color” of the light of the moon, one could describe it as at 4000K. What we have to remember, however, is that the moon does not emit light—it only reflects light. The reflected light does not have the same energy as directly emitted light, and thus is not as dangerous as directly emitted light. Insofar as the sun is concerned, it obviously does emit light. Ms. Rubin implies that we can all walk safely in the sunlight. Unfortunately, we all know this is not the case. Indeed, if we were to stare at the sun for as little as three minutes, we would all go blind! Obviously, the LED streetlights in our village are not as powerful as the sun, but it remains dangerous to stare directly at them, especially so when the cobra-fixtures needlessly expose us to bare LED bulbs, the Mayor’s choice for our village.
Amy Glass, Ph.D.
Great Neck