To the residents of certain neighbourhoods in Hong Kong, it may seem as if the nights are just getting brighter and brighter, with eye-popping LED advertising panels, colour-saturated neon signs and floodlit billboards illuminating the streets, adjacent buildings and the night sky all around.
Although the bright lights promote the image of a modern and vibrant cosmopolitan city, they may be adversely affecting the daily lives and health of those living amid the glare in the city's high density commercial-cum-residential areas.
'In the past couple of years, the light pollution issue has got more serious in the urban jungle,' says Edwin Lau Che-feng, a local director of environmental group Friends of the Earth.
'There are more and more advertising spotlights, panels and big screens being put up in different parts of the city. The government has received many complaints from the public about [external] lights shining through their windows and curtains.'
Last year, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) received 361 complaints about external light installations that were the responsibility of private organisations - mostly about light nuisance caused by advertisements, decorative lighting, or spotlights directed on building facades. The number of complaints has increased dramatically over a five-year period; even in 2007, 40 had been a seven-year high. And of course, many others suffer in silence.
'To be fair to the city, they have resolved a lot of the complaints,' says Carl Gardner, director of the London-based CSG Lighting Consultancy. Local authorities invited Gardner in October to conduct training seminars on practical lighting improvements based on British legislation.
