Dear Supporters,

Some of you wondered how 'visible radiation' and 'light' are not the same thing.  An easy way to think about it is with laser beams.  Lasers can cut your eye, blind a pilot, or blast a plane out of the sky.  Lasers are not regulated as light.  They are regulated as visible radiation.

LEDs were originally regulated just like lasers.  It was the LED lighting industry that got LEDs removed from regulation in about 2005, and now we are all suffering the consequences.  

The NHTSA FMVSS-108 standard only regulates the subset of the electromagnetic spectrum known as visible light, and that energy must be uniform, not directed energy like lasers and LEDs.  Since LEDs are directed-energy radiation, they are illegal (with good reason) for use in headlights.

Mark Baker
President
Soft Lights Foundation