X5 UV - Titanium/Ultraviolet LED Safety Question

chicago989

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Purchased this light recently and had some fun looking around the house with the lights off. I know it's not safe to directly look into the beam. However exploring with it do I need protection for my eyes? For instance I was exploring around my closet bathroom and my eyes felt a little irritated. This was probably like 30 seconds worth of looking around. Thanks in advance!
 

novice

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I'm not that knowledgeable about UV light, but it seems that there is always a possibility of UV bouncing back off of something (light paint, exposed conduits, exposed pipes, metallic hardware), especially in a confined space like a closet, where you might be fairly close to surfaces. If it were me, I would pay attention to the feelings of eye irritation, and get some UV protective goggles or glasses. Best to play it safe. I have no experience with UV protection, so I can't offer any recommendations.
 
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D6859

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I've been using my polycarbonate safety glasses that I got from a construction site. According to wikipedia "polycarbonate lenses also protect the eye from UV light". I think most of the sun glasses might work also but the glasses don't have to be dimmed, it's the polycarbonate that blocks the UV.

The glasses are easy to test. Just find something that glows in the uv light and put the glasses between the object and the light. The glasses should block the UV light and the object should stop glowing.
 

Nyctophiliac

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That is brilliant! I just tried this and it works, my ordinary prescription glasses stop the rays of my UV source (A FirstLight Tomahawk LE by the way) from fluorescing my highlighter.

Today I have learned new stuff!
 

eekazum

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Just my 2 cents on this but I think the reason the suns UV rays are said to be harmful is completely different from why it is warned against looking directly at a UV flashlight.

By definition, ultra violet is a wave length that is at or just below the spectrum people are able to see. This is why things of certain colored items seem to flash brighter than others under UV lighting.

Basically, a 1000 lumen UV light is exactly as bright as any 1000 lumen flashlight. Our eyes just think it's not but the brightness is still there. So walking around a house with the lights turned off with a 1000 lumen white flashlight is just as straining to your eyes as walking around the house with a 1000 lumen UV light. No more, no less damaging to your eyes.

The sun, in comparison, is a billion lumen mule pumping out all sorts of colors, radiation, and heat.... from 90 million miles away. Since (much like bass sound) low frequency wavelengths like UV tend to travel further than higher frequency wavelengths (namely, the light we can see), the UV light hitting is from 90 million miles away are much more intense than the light we actually see. Hence the suggestion to use UV blocking sunglasses.

I might not be 100% accurate in this tho. Bottom line is, be safe, use protection. Avoid unnecessary child support.
 
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ggf31416

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Just my 2 cents on this but I think the reason the suns UV rays are said to be harmful is completely different from why it is warned against looking directly at a UV flashlight.

By definition, ultra violet is a wave length that is at or just below the spectrum people are able to see. This is why things of certain colored items seem to flash brighter than others under UV lighting.

Basically, a 1000 lumen UV light is exactly as bright as any 1000 lumen flashlight. Our eyes just think it's not but the brightness is still there. So walking around a house with the lights turned off with a 1000 lumen white flashlight is just as straining to your eyes as walking around the house with a 1000 lumen UV light. No more, no less damaging to your eyes.

The reason UV light from a uv flashlight may be even more dangerous than the same amount of UV light from the sun (and the reason fake sunglasses may be dangerous as well) is that the pupils will expand or contract depending on the amount of visible light. In sunlight the pupils will be contracted allowing little light to pass, of which most will be visible light rather than UV. A dark room (typical usage of a UV flashlight), with the only source of light being the small visible output of the UV flashlight and the luminescence, will cause the pupils to expand to allow more light to enter the eye, much of it will be reflected UV from objects. If you shine the UV light directly on someone's dark-adapted eyes is even worse.

The sun, in comparison, is a billion lumen mule pumping out all sorts of colors, radiation, and heat.... from 90 million miles away. Since (much like bass sound) low frequency wavelengths like UV tend to travel further than higher frequency wavelengths (namely, the light we can see), the UV light hitting is from 90 million miles away are much more intense than the light we actually see. Hence the suggestion to use UV blocking sunglasses.

I might not be 100% accurate in this tho. Bottom line is, be safe, use protection. Avoid unnecessary child support.

The 90 million miles argument is incorrect because the dispersion will only happen in the atmosphere. Furthermore a large amount of the UV light is filtered in the ozone layer (at least far from Antarctica and Greenland) while the visible light is unaffected by it.
 

ZMZ67

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I've been using my polycarbonate safety glasses that I got from a construction site. According to wikipedia "polycarbonate lenses also protect the eye from UV light". I think most of the sun glasses might work also but the glasses don't have to be dimmed, it's the polycarbonate that blocks the UV.

The glasses are easy to test. Just find something that glows in the uv light and put the glasses between the object and the light. The glasses should block the UV light and the object should stop glowing.

Nice tip! My prescription glasses seem to block most of the UV light like Nyctophiliac's
 

eekazum

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ggf31416: true and true. Now I know. I had totally forgot about the ozone layer.
 
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