Is 200 lumens "dangerous"?

[dc38]

I think the mag only goes up to ~ 131 lumens....so we may never know.



The cd is pretty high though, as when focused to throw, the mag projects those 131 lumens pretty far, I'd guess close to ~ 33k cd (Mag 3 D, etc)

I think you're right, the newer packages list the 3d's at 32k or 36k cd

 

[Up All Night]

Coast not only encourages it, but goes so far as to angle a mirror at you inside their packaging, with a "test it!" arrow pointing to the switch.

LOL, very true Mav!
To their credit they do have a yellow warning label that states "do not look directly at light", significantly smaller than the "try me" label however. Certainly did not deter a little lad from pressing his eye against the mirror and working the switch feverishly on a G25 @ Home Depot. :nana:

In all seriousness, any light bright enough to cause a reaction, squint, wince, etc.. should not be left in the hands of the young and curious.

 

[warmurf]

How did we do when all we had was a wooden stick dipped in tar? Did we let little Johnny use that torch or did we expect him to go out of the cave for a piddle in the dark? But seriously, I think it's good for kids to use a good flashlight and to learn the do's and don'ts with a little supervision. My three kids have been learned about keeping the light out of people's eyes and to point them down of not looking at anything. Best keeping the 2000 lumen lights out of their hands though.

 

[rasmasyean]

How did we do when all we had was a wooden stick dipped in tar? Did we let little Johnny use that torch or did we expect him to go out of the cave for a piddle in the dark? But seriously, I think it's good for kids to use a good flashlight and to learn the do's and don'ts with a little supervision. My three kids have been learned about keeping the light out of people's eyes and to point them down of not looking at anything. Best keeping the 2000 lumen lights out of their hands though.

Well, for normal ppl (not "flashaholics" ) the flashlight isn't an everyday tool especially if you live in a somewhat urbanized area and power outages are like a wonder. Most parents don't "teach the kids how to use powerful flashlights" or whatever. And many parents don't even care if they shine lights in each other's faces, let alone know much about the increasing lumens trend. But with modern media, kids have those beam / energy weapons imprinted into their minds and when they find one somewhere, the rest is just left to their imaginations. lol

I mean, I can't tell you how many times in the past I had to look for my flashlight(s) after some holiday gathering. rofl!

 

[BigBluefish]

I wouldn't give a kid under say, 10 or 11 a light that puts out more than about 50 lumens. Even if he or she isn't going to look right at the emitter, playing around with them, he's gonna shine it in someone's eyes.

Time was 60 lumens was considered adequate brightness for a "tactical" light, meaning it gave you enough light to identify a threat at across-the-room distance, and enough light to male someone in total darkness turn away from the beam if it were directed into the eyes. At least, years ago, that how I understood it. I've pretty much kept that as a rule of thumb: if its 60 lumens or more, be careful where you point it.

At what level will a light cause eye damage? I'm not sure anyone is really sure; probably not any controlled studies on this. I'd operate under the assumption that you don't want to shine anything in your eyes, or your kid's, or your kid's friends, that's brigher than what the doc uses to check your eyes in an exam.

 

[Kitchen Panda]

I just got a 200 lumen drop in LED for a maglite and it seems really bright when looking directly at it. I mean like REALLY bright!

Is it "dangerous" to the eyes? Should there be any caution for like letting kids get a hold of it and using them as lightsabers and practical jokes?

Check out the slit lamps that an opthalmologist would use for an eye examination - it's designed to get as many lumens as possible to the back of the eye and the ones I found described on the Web *start* at 200 lumens. So, lumens alone aren't the criterion - the actual damage threshold would probably be expressed as so many milliwats per square centimetre of retina exposed to light.

 

[Jakeyb]

LOL, very true Mav!
To their credit they do have a yellow warning label that states "do not look directly at light", significantly smaller than the "try me" label however. Certainly did not deter a little lad from pressing his eye against the mirror and working the switch feverishly on a G25 @ Home Depot. :nana:

In all seriousness, any light bright enough to cause a reaction, squint, wince, etc.. should not be left in the hands of the young and curious.

Hahahahaha thats hilarious I've seen this before in stores myself

 

[FourBin Labs]

I have to agree that ant light this starts getting into the triple digit lumen numbers should remain out of the hands of children until they have proven that they are responsible with lights of lesser power.

I was at a friend's house for a small get together recently, and there were a couple kids there. I generally get along with kids well as long as I don't have do discipline them. I always end up letting them walk all over me.

Anyway, one girl, maybe 6ish or so, took my light with Cree XM-L2 90+ high CRI emitter from my holster (yes I let her take it). I generaly leave the light set to turn on to low, which is about supposed to be 5% on this model. So 5% of ~500 lumens is only about 25 lumens, but I to me it looks more like about 45 lumens. The first thing she did is shined it into my eyes. There was no playing around with it before she got to that point. Step 1: find out how to turn it on. Step 2: Shine it in my eyes. Step 3: Shine it across the room at everyone else.

For some reason, this seemed to be almost instinctual for her to go right for the eyes. I did my best to kindly discourage her from doing that. After shining it around, and twisting the tail cap loose enough until it turned the light off, she kinda got bored with it and gave it back.

I don't think there is any magic age, but I think you have to watch them and see how they behave with other lights first.

 

[idleprocess]

We should encourage people to not pick up a flashlight and shine it into their eyes. Just common sense. No?

For some reason, those accustomed to maglites and 2D Ray-O-Vacs seem to think this is the standard method for testing if a flashlight works - point it at your face and flip the switch. I guess back when incans were lucky to be shoving a few tens of lumens out the front this wasn't a terrible plan, unlike today.

 

[martinaee]

Think of lumens like this: If you press a hammer with moderate pressure against your wrist you have nothing to worry about. If you press a razor blade against your wrist with moderate pressure... well don't do that, but you see my point.

Lumens from a light in most rooms are bouncing around everywhere lighting things evenly even with several thousand lumens often being emitted from overhead lights. If you take even a few hundred of those lumens and focus them with say a highly polished reflector onto a surface the intensity or lux ramps up tremendously.

Yes it can damage your eyes for sure. Even 50 lumens directly into your eyes up close would be painful and probably harmful if kept there for more than a moment or two. There is a reason little kids are told not to look into the sun. A quick glance won't do anything, but too long literally can damage the sensitive organs and optics that are your eyes. Light is energy and it can do damage for sure. Terrified ants running from the demonic kid with a magnifying glass know this all too well. :devil:

For some reason, those accustomed to maglites and 2D Ray-O-Vacs seem to think this is the standard method for testing if a flashlight works - point it at your face and flip the switch. I guess back when incans were lucky to be shoving a few tens of lumens out the front this wasn't a terrible plan, unlike today.

^ LOL they do that in every movie ever made. I've been watching "horror" movies to get in the 'Ween spirit and I noticed two things about horror movies: People never have a light brighter than a mini-mag with a dying incandescent bulb and in those movies those same people will always go for a match first to light up a room before they ever look for their actual (crappy) flashlight.


I want to make a horror movie where a guy/girl is going into a creepy-*** dungeon of a basement and suddenly turns on a Fenix RC40. Demons and ghosts are just awkwardly standing around shocked that they are suddenly exposed. Cut to black and credits roll. The end.

 

[laser63588]

The car have at least 2000 lumens,but the divers are safe

 

[martinaee]

The car have at least 2000 lumens,but the divers are safe

Honestly 2000 seems kinda high for a lot of cars even using their high-beams but I could be wrong. Maybe newer cars and/or/with HID headlights.

2000 lumens spread out over an area and other drivers aren't staring right into the beam close up. There is a reason it's curteous to turn down your high beams in the city --- they CAN cause distraction or momentary blindness which would make you very much not safe in a vehicle barreling down the road.

 

[FourBin Labs]

Honestly 2000 seems kinda high for a lot of cars even using their high-beams but I could be wrong. Maybe newer cars and/or/with HID headlights.

Both of my cars take 9007 bulbs. Spec for a 9007 is 1000 on low, 1350 on high. So many non HID cars are putting out 2000+ lumens ,especially with the high beams.

 

[Glock 22]

I EDC a 200 lumen Surefire EB1. And that's just a baby compared to some of my lights.