A plastic strip embedded with Polymertronics’ LEDs can reportedly destroy skin cancer cells by bathing cream-applied skin with red light.

According to a recent article in the British national newspaper the Daily Mail, “a strip of bendy plastic” embedded with LEDs by Polymertronics “can patch up wounds and destroy skin cancer cells by zapping them with light.”

Stephen Clemmet, managing director for the company, told BioOptics World that the LEDs match the absorbance spectra of aminolaevulinic acid (ALA), which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating skin carcinomas. So an ALA-based cream applied to the skin enables photodynamic therapy when the LED-encrusted patch bathes the area in red light.

While current skin-cancer treatments are big, expensive and require long stretches of inactivity, Polymertronics’ light bandage is faster-acting and unobtrusive enough to allow patients to follow their normal routine. The LED bandage connects to a power pack worn on a patient’s waist or tucked into a pocket.

Clemmet explained that his company has two prototype versions of the same bandage, one based on LEDs and one OLEDs. Each has specific advantages.

“We have tested both our LED solution and organic LED solutions in a controlled laboratory experiment,” Clemmet told BioOptics World. “The LED killed 100% of head and neck cancer cells in less than half an hour, whilst our organic LED solution did the job in 2.5 hours. For a wearable product this is very acceptable.”

Because LED technology is more established and better understood, and especially because the FDA has already approved LEDs for medical use, the LED-based version of the bandage will be the first to appear as a product. Polymertronics will begin clinical trials in the next few months and expects to receive approval in early to mid 2011. In the meantime, the company will continue to develop its OLED technology and is seeking further investment.

For more information see the Daily Mail article and Polymertronics’ website.

Reported by Barbara G. Goode from BioOptics World magazine

Four New Jersey communities will be part of a pilot replacing cobra headlamps on utility poles with LEDs.

Camden, Elizabeth, Trenton and Verona are the four locales where LED street lamps will be tried.

PSE&G partnered with the New Jersey cities and Essex County in a test installation of new LEDs in the streetlights of certain city and county roadways.

Twenty-four LED street lamps are being installed without charge to the participating cities or counties.

PSE&G will be performing multiple tests during the next six to 12 months to determine reliability, light output, light quality, and energy consumption.

The municipalities are being asked to monitor their experience with the new type of lighting from a pedestrian perspective and to provide feedback to PSE&G regarding their satisfaction with the quality of the light.

LED technologies in street lighting are expected to reduce energy consumption by up to 70% while providing an equal or better illumination. In addition, they have a potential life expectancy of three to four times that of the current high intensity discharge (HID) sources like high-pressure sodium and metal halide.

LEDs are constructed by assembling multiple diodes connected together to form an array and then assembling multiple arrays to complete the fixture. LEDs are considered green alternatives because of their extremely low hazardous materials content and the fact that reducing energy consumption significantly will reduce the need for electric generation that produces carbon dioxide into the environment.

Today’s installations are the company’s first look into this technology and will permit a real world test of manufacturer and industry claims on energy savings, visual effect and reliability.

Following review and analysis of the program, PSE&G will then determine where and how this technology can be deployed in its street lighting and area lighting systems.

The New Jersey cities follow Ann Arbor, Michigan, Raleigh, North Carolina and Toronto, Ontario in making a commitment to LED technology.