CAMBRIDGE — A historic village in rural Washington County would seem to be an idyllic place to live for those wanting to escape the sensory onslaught of city noise and lights.
But for the last three years, one Cambridge woman says she has been assaulted by LED lights installed on village streets, which she says trigger her photosensitive epilepsy and have caused her hundreds of seizures.
Ever since MarieAnn Cherry had her first LED-induced seizure in 2008, she said she has gone out of her way to avoid the ultra-bright lights, which she claims have the power to knock her off her feet and send her into convulsions.
The 62-year-old — backed by the signatures of 50 residents and nonresidents who have expressed concern for Cherry’s health or have their own lighting concerns — is fighting with power provider National Grid and the village of Cambridge over the LED lamps, filing complaints with the state Division of Human Rights and state Department of Public Service.
Cherry first notified village officials of her photosensitive condition in 2017. In 2019, the village swapped 212 high-pressure sodium streetlights with environmentally cleaner, more energy-efficient LED lighting — a project subsidized by the state’s Smart Street Lighting initiative, which aims to replace 500,000 lampposts with LED technology by 2025.
It’s a transition that is happening in communities across the country, part of a nationwide push toward environmental goals, but little data has been collected on how LEDs affect people with photosensitive epilepsy.
“When the lights first appeared, I thought, I must not have explained myself properly. All I have to do is convey it to them in a way for them to hear it. It’s real and it’s serious and I can’t stop it,” Cherry said. “But there has never been an effort to solve it. There’s been an effort to force me to accept it ……
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