Dear Supporters,
Here is a template letter for you to send to your two Senators. To get the name of the Legislative Director for the senator, enter "congressweb [Senator Name]" into a search engine, click the link, then scroll down to Legislative Director. The format of the email address for the Legislative Director is firstname_lastname@senator.senate.gov. For example, kristina_potts@durbin.senate.gov.
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Dear [Name], Legislative Director, [Senator Name], [State],
Below is the Soft Lights Foundation press release of the recent FDA decision to not regulate any LED product. The FDA decision should outrage [Senator Name], as the FDA's decision places the burden of LED product regulation onto state and local governments, which is in direct opposition to the passage of the 1968 Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act which brought regulation of electromagnetic radiation under federal control.
The decision by the FDA to not regulate LED products at all and to not collaborate with NHTSA to publish performance standards for LED headlights means that Americans will continue to be blinded by LED headlights. Is [Senator Name] going to do anything about this?
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
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Press Release: May 29, 2024
US FDA Decision: No Regulations for LED Products
On May 24, 2024, the US Food and Drug Administration rejected four Soft Lights Foundation petitions to regulate LED products. (https://www.softlights.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Final-Response-Citizen-Petitions-FDA-2022-P-1151-FDA-2023-P-0233-FDA-2023-P-3828-FDA-2023-P-3879.pdf
In summary, the FDA's position is that the FDA should not regulate LED products, that the FDA has no intention of regulating LED products, and that the FDA will not collaborate with any other federal agency to regulate LED products.
This FDA ruling has major policy and constitutional implications. As noted in a history of the 1968 Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act, one of the reasons that Congress passed the law directing the FDA to regulate electromagnetic radiation from electronic products was to provide federal regulatory oversight that was previously handled at the local and state level. (https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8846732/Tran06.pdf
Since the FDA is the only federal agency with Congressional authority to regulate LED products, the FDA ruling means that all other federal agencies, including NHTSA, DOE, OSHA, CPSC, EPA, Access Board, FAA, FHWA, and others are blocked from publishing regulations for LED vehicle headlights, LED street lights, LED light bulbs, LED flashing lights on emergency vehicles, LED office lights, LED appliance indicator lights, or any other LED product, even if those LED products cause harm.
The FDA's decision to not regulate LED products thus pushes regulation of LED products to state and local governments, which is likely an unconstitutional shift of regulatory authority from federal agencies to state and local agencies, and a clear violation of the Congressional mandate codified in 21 U.S.C. 360ii.
Without an intervention by Congress or the Courts, municipalities, businesses, manufacturers, and employers are each now forced to develop and publish their own policy for LED products to ensure the health, safety, and civil rights of the public and the protection of the environment, and a failure by an entity to establish the necessary health, safety, and civil rights policies in relation to the entity's use or manufacture of unregulated and unsafe LED products makes the entity liable for tort or discrimination claims due to negligence or a failure to provide a duty of care.
Contact:
Mark Baker, President, Soft Lights Foundation
mbaker@softlights.org
www.softlights.org