Doctor Points Out Health Danger Coming From Our New-Age Industrial Centers: Light Pollution

(Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Massive. Loud. Power-sucking. What else is there to hate about our new-age industrial hubs, the data centers that are powering the internet and AI revolution?

According to a Pennsylvania doctor, it’s their light.

Dr. Barbara Brandom pointed out in a recent op-ed that artificial light pollution produced by AI data centers is going unnoticed in the headlines and that this ugly brightness can have detrimental effects on human health. (RELATED: Battle Against Data Centers Driving Up Electric Bills Unites Republicans, Democrats)

“A hyperscale data center campus requires as many as 1200 acres of land to accommodate infrastructure, cooling, and power systems, with round-the-clock industrial lighting. Residents in rural or suburban areas near data centers have reported that the facilities often ‘glow at night’ like large cities,” Brandom writes.

STONE RIDGE, VIRGINIA – JULY 17: In an aerial view, an Amazon Web Services data center is shown situated near single-family homes on July 17, 2024 in Stone Ridge, Virginia. Northern Virginia is the largest data center market in the world, according to a report this year cited in published accounts, but is facing headwinds from availability of land and electric power. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

She notes that artificial light can have negative effects on wildfire and ecological systems, and can harm human sleep patterns and circadian rhythm.

“Although the evidence that indoor light pollution alters human health is fairly strong, the effects of external light pollution on human health have only been documented for 15 to 20 years. Nevertheless, since 1995 studies examining female employees working a rotating night shift found that an elevated risk of breast cancer is associated with exposure to artificial light at night,” Brandom writes.

Brandom goes on to cite a 2007 study from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, suggesting that overnight shift work, disruptions in circadian rhythm, and exposure to artificial light are possible carcinogens. She also mentions a 2006 report from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which observed how modern life, dominated by unnatural shifts in light due to the invention of electricity, possibly contributes to higher rates of breast and prostate cancers, obesity, and early-onset diabetes.

MIDLOTHIAN, TEXAS – NOVEMBER 14: A general view of the Google Midlothian Data Center, where Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai are scheduled to speak on November 14, 2025, in Midlothian, Texas. Google announced today that it plans to invest $40 billion dollars in three new Texas data centers through 2027. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

This might sound like radical hippie conspiratorial claptrap, but the research has me convinced that constant exposure to artificial light late at night is so unnatural that it can do damage to the body. It makes sense. Humans didn’t evolve to be up all night when the sun was down. We followed the natural patterns of light, waking at sunrise, hunting and farming during the day, then packing it up when the sun set.

Obviously, it’s not a problem for those of us who don’t live next door to a data center. But there are many Americans who do who are pretty ticked off about how big, how noisy, and maybe how bright they are. And if our future is to be dominated by AI productivity, and the growth of our economy depends so much on the technology sector, who knows? Maybe more and more and more data centers will spring up across the country. Maybe a data center will spring up in your backyard.

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