Shiny Chandravel, Assistant Opinions Editor
Seatbelts fastened. Music up. Windows down. My ritual of driving at night is a sacred one. But it was on one of these night drives home from work when my life flashed before my eyes.
As I shifted into the right lane to take my exit back to VCU, something unnatural happened.
My side and rear view mirrors suddenly flooded with a glaring light. My eyes burned from the brightness of a thousand suns. I slammed on the brakes because in that moment, I knew nothing could possibly create light like this, save for the rapture itself.
But I was wrong.
This was no heavenly feat. It was the result of modern LED headlights — straight from the depths of hell.
The norm for headlights used to be halogen bulbs, emitting a warm light, easy on the eye. The bulbs emit 1,000 lumens of light, modest compared to standard 4,000-lumen LED lights. Aftermarket LED additions, often illegal, have been recorded to emit up to 12,000 lumens, destroying the line of sight for any driver caught in their vicinity.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s publicly available data, headlight brightness has roughly doubled since 2015. These lights have gained international attention from drivers for being incompatible with safe driving.
LED lights have been universalized in the past few years in our homes, street lights and signs due to their significant energy efficiency and customizability. But in the wake of the rapid introduction of these lights, we are left blinded, discovering repercussions on the fly.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the agency responsible for establishing federal motor vehicle safety standards. Automakers must petition the agency if they want authorization on any new lighting technology. However, according to the Soft Lights Foundation, there has been no record found of automakers submitting a petition to use LED technology for headlights, taillights, brake lights or Daytime Running Lights.
With no submitted petition, there have been no moves by the NHTSA to update their light regulations to match the requirements LED lights impose. Despite the structural differences between halogen and LED headlights, the NHTSA has yet to study the glare caused by LED headlights.
Mark Baker, The Soft Light Foundation president, filed a lawsuit against the FDA, the only federal agency with Congressional authority and mandate to regulate electromagnetic radiation emitted from electronic products.
The FDA has failed in its responsibility to publish performance standards for LED lights from headlights to light-up children’s sneakers, according to Baker.
The foundation has listed several claims in the lawsuit, including that LED lights increase light pollution and risk of disease such as macular degeneration of the eyes, cancer, diabetes, obesity and mood disorders.
Unfortunately, the U.S. District Court in California ruled against Baker, stating that he lacked the authority to compel the FDA to act on specific products, such as headlights.
As of early 2025, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, was pushing last year for a Congressional hearing to discuss the safety risks LED headlights pose. Today, over 70,000 individuals have signed a petition by the Soft Lights Foundation to ban LED headlights.
Until then, the Soft Lights Foundation has encouraged people to contact their local representatives to join Thompson in holding the FDA and the NHTSA accountable.
The people have overwhelmingly spoken, yet LED headlights still roam our streets. Until our government holds automakers accountable, we will continue to drive blindly by their destructive inaction.