Abstract: Light-at-night has become an increasing and essential part of the modern lifestyle and leads to a number of health problems, including excessive body mass index, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Working Group concluded that “shift-work that involves circadian disruption is probably carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2A) [1]. According to the circadian disruption hypothesis, light-at-night might disrupt the endogenous circadian rhythm and specifically suppress nocturnal production of the pineal hormone melatonin and its secretion into the blood. We evaluated the effect of various light/dark regimens on the survival, life span, and spontaneous and chemical carcinogenesis in rodents. Exposure to constant illumination was followed by accelerated aging and enhanced spontaneous tumorigenesis in female CBA and transgenic HER-2/neu mice. In male and female rats maintained at various light/dark regimens (standard 12:12 light/dark [LD], the natural light [NL] of northwestern Russia, constant light [LL], and constant darkness [DD]) from the age of 25 days until natural death, it was found that exposure to NL and LL regimens accelerated age-related switch-off of the estrous function (in females), induced development of metabolic syndrome and spontaneous tumorigenesis, and shortened life span both in male and females rats compared to the standard LD regimen. Melatonin given in nocturnal drinking water prevented the adverse effect of the constant illumination (LL) and natural light (NL) regimens on the homeostasis, life span, and tumor development both in mice and rats. The exposure to the LL regimen accelerated colon carcinogenesis induced by 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) in rats, whereas the treatment with melatonin alleviated the effects of LL. The maintenance of rats at the DD regimen inhibited DMH-induced carcinogenesis. The LL regimen accelerated, whereas the DD regimen inhibited both mammary carcinogenesis induced by N-nitrosomethylurea and transplacental carcinogenesis induced by N-nitrosoethylurea in rats. Treatment with melatonin prevented premature aging and tumorigenesis in rodents. The data found in the literature and our observations suggest that the use of melatonin would be effective for cancer prevention in humans at risk as a result of light pollution.

Abstract: Enterprises organized in clusters are often efficient in stimulating urban development, productivity and profit outflows. Identifying the clusters of economic activities thus becomes an important step in devising regional development policies, aimed at the formation of clusters of economic activities in geographic areas in which this objective is desirable. However, a major problem with the identification of such clusters stems from limited reporting by individual countries and administrative entities on the regional distribution of specific economic activities, especially for small regional subdivisions. In this study, we test a possibility that missing data on geographic concentrations of economic activities in the European NUTS3 regions can be reconstructed using light-at-night satellite measurements, and that such reconstructed data can then be used for cluster identification. The matter is that light-at-night, captured by satellite sensors, is characterized by different intensity, depending on its source—production facilities, services, etc. As a result, light-at-night can become a marker of different types of economic activities, a hypothesis that the present study confirms. In particular, as the present analysis indicates, average light-at-night intensities emitted from NUTS3 regions help to explain up to 94 % variance in the areal density of several types of economic activities, performing especially well for professional, scientific and technical services (R^2=0.742−0.939), public administration (R^2=0.642−0.934), as well as for arts, entertainment and recreation (R^2=0.718−0.934). As a result, clusters of these economic activities can be identified using light-at-night data, thus helping to supplement missing information and assist regional analysis.

Abstract: We evaluated the effect of various light/dark regimens on the survival, life span and tumorigenesis in rats. Two hundred eight male and 203 females LIO rats were subdivided into 4 groups and kept at various light/dark regimens: standard 12:12 light/dark (LD); natural lighting of the North-West of Russia (NL); constant light (LL), and constant darkness (DD) since the age of 25 days until natural death. We found that exposure to NL and LL regimens accelerated development of metabolic syndrome and spontaneous tumorigenesis, shortened life span both in male and females rats as compared to the standard LD regimen. We conclude that circadian disruption induced by light-at-night accelerates aging and promotes tumorigenesis in rats. This observation supports the conclusion of the International Agency Research on Cancer that shift-work that involves circadian disruption is probably carcinogenic to humans.