Light Emitting Diode Lighting Flicker, its Impact on Health, and the Need to Minimise it

The existing technologies in Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting sometimes cause flicker at frequencies that may have adverse health effects. Although, not always obvious to the human eye, it can make a difference in certain circumstances. Moreover, the flicker rate of many LED lights available in the market is much greater than conventional lights. This flicker has the potential to exert harmful effects on health. The various adverse effects of flicker include eye strain, fatigue, headache, migraine, blurred vision as well as asphotoepilepsy in sensitive individuals. In order to resolve the problem of high flicker, the foremost step is to develop a global standard for measuring flicker and then to have regulations for acceptable flicker limit. With the growing concern over LED flicker rate, many global lighting standards and specification communities have developed or are in the process of developing flicker measurement standards. In India, currently there is no regulatory body to check the LED quality parameters with regard to flicker rate. Despite the fact that LED lighting products with high flicker rate carry a risk of flicker-induced health problems, a wide range of such products have penetrated the Indian market. The aim of this article was to summarise the information from the available literature about different types of flicker, methods to quantify flicker and potential health impact of flicker.