The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must fulfill its obligation to study the health impacts of LED lights and report its findings to Congress, according to a petition filed Dec. 30, 2025, with the agency.
Federal law directs the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or his delegates, such as the FDA, to study health hazards — including the intense artificial light emitted by LEDs — of radiation emitted by electronic products. According to the nonprofit Soft Lights Foundation, which filed the petition, the FDA has ignored that obligation.
In its petition to the FDA, the Soft Lights Foundation cited studies linking the blue light emitted by LEDs to hormonal disruption, increased risk of breast cancer, and other health risks.
Blue light is a high-frequency segment of the visible light spectrum nearly as powerful as ultraviolet (UV) light, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The sun naturally emits some blue light, particularly in the morning, but the proliferation of LED technology means people are now bombarded with blue light at all hours.
“Pulsed LED lights interfere with vision and cognitive functioning, and the adverse impacts of LED flashing lights are already the subject of multiple lawsuits,” the petition states.
LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are semiconductor devices that emit light when electricity flows through them.
The U.S. Department of Energy projects that LEDs, which are more energy-efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs, will account for the majority of U.S. lighting installations by 2035.
Most electronic screens, including computers, cellphones and electronic advertisements, also contain LEDs. And increasingly, car headlights, bike lights and streetlights use them.
Kids are especially at risk
Mark Baker, founder and president of the Soft Lights Foundation, told The Defender that children are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of blue light exposure.
“The lens of a child’s eye is clear, allowing more hazardous blue wavelength light into the retina,” Baker said. “As we age into adults, the lens becomes thicker and less clear and less blue light reaches the retina.”
Kids with other health conditions may be especially vulnerable to eye damage from blue light.
“Children who have autism, epilepsy, ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder], photophobia or many other medical conditions can suffer anxiety, epileptic and nonepileptic seizures, brain fog, nausea and eye pain from exposure to LED light,” Baker said.
LED lights in schools can cause disruptive behavior and can adversely affect learning outcomes, he added.
Studying the health and safety impacts of LEDs and reporting the findings to Congress is the first step the FDA must take to comply with federal law, Baker said.
Next, the agency must work with other federal agencies to establish LED product performance standards that protect people’s health and safety.
“Because the FDA has not published performance standards for LED products to ensure our health and safety, parents have not been given guidelines for how to keep their children safe,” he said.
LED headlights risk drivers’ safety
The intense LEDs in vehicle headlights pose a particular threat to people’s safety, according to the Soft Lights Foundation petition.
The petition includes dozens of comments from people who said the blinding brightness of LED headlights makes it difficult to drive safely.
A healthy 28-year-old with 20/20 vision wrote:
“There have been many times where I pass a car coming from the opposite direction, and I legitimately can’t see the road anymore. …
“There’s also, of course, the issue of cars behind you with bright headlights. Even if I set my rearview mirror to its ‘tinted’ mode, the light coming off of my side mirrors is still so bright. It makes it almost impossible to see out of my mirrors, such that I can’t see what’s behind me or next to me, and it even affects my ability to see right in front of me.”
The FDA should work with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, to set limits on maximum intensity of LED headlights, Baker said.
In May 2024, the FDA rejected four earlier petitions from the Soft Lights Foundation urging the agency to regulate LEDs, arguing that Congress does not require the agency to do so.
An FDA spokesperson told The Defender that the agency is reviewing the petition and will respond directly to the Soft Lights Foundation and Baker.
Under federal law, the FDA has 180 days to respond.
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
A child’s eye lens is clearer than an adult’s. This allows more potentially harmful blue-wavelength light to reach the retina, said Mark Baker, founder and president of the Soft Lights Foundation. The nonprofit last month petitioned the FDA to study the health effects of LED lights, which emit blue light, and report its findings to Congress.