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Swedish town introduces light therapy to bus shelters


Umea Energi is installing phototherapy lamps in 30 of the city's bus shelters. Umea Energi



So the local energy company Umea Energi has begun installing phototherapy lamps in 30 bus shelters throughout the city to try, as spokesperson Anna Norrgard tells Reuters, to give people "a little energy kick" while they wait.

The company reports that the light is completely harmless, with the ultraviolet radiation filtered out, according to a Google translation of the press release, and adds: "When the sun shows itself the least, we need the energy the most."

The American Cancer Society states that while there is no scientific evidence for the use of ultraviolet therapy in treating cancer or other illnesses beyond psoriasis and the suppression of a certain type of skin cancer, light box therapy without the ultraviolet radiation is a "proven medical treatment for seasonal affective disorder," and that it is currently being explored to treat other types of depression.

The electricity that will power these bus shelter lamps for the next three weeks reportedly comes from renewable sources and is part of the company's long-term goal to be completely carbon neutral by 2018.