Effect On The Lanthony Desaturated D-15 When Adapting To A Sodium Vapor Lamp.

Background: Many highways are illuminated with sodium vapor lights which have the potential to create color discrepancies for people with normal color vision. This study looks at a subject's color discrimination both immediately upon exposure and after a specified time of exposure to sodium vapor lamps to see if the subject's color discrimination changed over time. Methods: The sodium vapor lamp was calibrated to twenty-eight foot-candles. Subjects were initially tested using a Lanthony Desaturated D-15 color vision test immediately after being exposed to the sodium vapor lamp. The test was repeated after ten minutes exposure to the lamp. Results: The results were analyzed using the ColorVis1on Recorde~ and SPSS software. A statistically significant difference in mean scores due to adaptation for the pre and post CCI, AC-CCI, and C-Index was found in this experiment. The paired-samples T-Test did not reveal a statistically significant difference in mean scores for the S-index from the pre- and post-adaptation tests. Conclusion: Our results show that color vision discrimination improves under sodium vapor lighting despite previous studies showing almost instantaneous adaptation for color vision discrimination in various circumstances. More research is indicated to determine if our results are based on actual adaptation to sodium vapor lighting or the improvements reflect a learning curve with experience taking the desaturated D-15 .