LED = Eye Damage?

[WadeF]

I was recently talking about the benefits of LED's on a public forum and someone came along and said they will never use LED's because they cause eye damage. I know looking into the emitter isn't the best thing to do, but how dangerous are they? This person was concerned with LED's for home lighting, car head lights, etc. I guess situations where you'd be looking at the light source.

I couldn't find any articles to back this up, other than blue and green LED's being bad, but I'm talking about white LED's.

If anyone has any facts I'd be interested to hear them so I could pass them along. I tried a search, but I only came up with UV LED eye damage, which is pretty obvious.

 

[LukeA]

'Someone' is a wacko, IMO.

 

[Daniel_sk]

Damn, just today I was looking into the L1D CE beam .

 

[fluke]

Who said that ?????:nana::nana::nana::nana:

 

[tussery]

Funny because I would assume that LED's don't create much light in the color spectrums that would damage eyes.

Unless they are UV LED's.

 

[jtr1962]

Any intense light source can cause eye damage if stare at it for hours on end, including the sun or incandescent lamps. Maybe this person works for GE, so they have a vested interest in scaring people away from LEDs? Usually those who benefit from the status quo will think up all sorts of scare tactics to discredit anything new. Look at the number the automakers and big oil did with electric cars, for example. Or the fear about microwaves in the 1970s. Fact is some people just hate change, so when something new comes along, those with a lot of free time on their hands will start the gloom and doom scenarios. Best to just not pay them any attention. I love LEDs. Next time I'm up for a fixture change in maybe ten years it'll all go LED. The chandeliers will go LED as soon as viable LED replacements come out (within 3 years I'd say). I'm not worried about eye damage. If anything, LEDs are safer than either incandescents or fluorescents because they don't emit at all in the most harmful UV bands.

 

[BB]

This might have come from a decade or so ago when LED's were equated with Laser Diodes wrt poorly worded European safety regulations...

I forget how it was worded--but I had to go around in circles with the regulatory engineer saying that little 5 milliamp Red/Green/Yellow indicator LED's were not going to damage anyone's eyes.

-Bill

 

[ja10]

I've heard people say that too, but like other people have said, staring at any bright light source can hurt the eyes.

You know, sticking your hand in an open flame can cause burns too. That doesn't mean we avoid using candles or gas stoves, it just means we avoid holding body parts over open flames! Same with staring at LEDs.

 

[IsaacHayes]

If you were to stare at the bare emitter up close of a high powered LED I can see it damaging your eyes. Same as looking at a bright powerful incandescent filament too. If you are seeing spots after briefly looking at something, then common sense tells you not to stare at it... But who stares at say their 100watt house hold bulbs? Or at a 500watt halogen floor lamp bulb? I doubt LED's would be an issue there...

 

[dano]

All the LED based Streamlight models have a warning sticker that says the LED's radiation level may cause eye damage...

Couldn't comment on the specifics, though.

 

[koala]

He can avoid buying LCD screens in the future. Apple laptops are fitted with LEDs backlight, many other manufacturers are coming up with LEDs too.

 

[Manzerick]

if you could go blind from it... we'd have a whole lotta them aorund here!!!

 

[geepondy]

I have had a Fluorescein angiogram performed in which pictures are taken of the back of your retina thru a lens. The flash was so bright that my vision afterwards was a red haze much like being in a dark room as the eyes ability to perceive blue is temporarily disabled. This never happened while looking at an LED before.

 

[Lite_me]

Here is the warning sticker on my COAST Led Lenser. It's well warranted too.

 

[jboydjr]

There is an article regarding the occulars risks of HBLEDs (High Brightness LEDs) http://www.em.avnet.com/ctf_shared/sta/df2df2usa/LightSpeed-Eskow-0607.pdf

I don't know why the link is all goofed up, but I hope it works

 

[WadeF]

There is an article regarding the occulars risks of HBLEDs (High Brightness LEDs) http://www.em.avnet.com/ctf_shared/sta/df2df2usa/LightSpeed-Eskow-0607.pdf

Thanks for everyone's input. The artice was interesting, but he states that they found it wasn't the brightness of the sun, but "the short-wavelength light acccompanyng it. Blue light and shorter wavelengths ca be 1,000 times more dangerous than IR radiation."

It sounds like some here are saying the LED's aren't emitting light in these dangerous wave lengths? If that's they case, I'm not sure why the author of this article says your eyes could be damaged just from the intensity of the light.

 

[yellow]

anyone has a link to the seller of leds being bright enough to cause eye damaye?

My 1A cree and SSC mods are still too dim
(imagine a single emitter bike light: small, endless runtime and bright as the sun)


some ppl seem to have too much time to think unnecessary problems over and over

 

[fluke]

Here is the warning sticker on my COAST Led Lenser. It's well warranted too.

One of Jay's (FlashCrazy) Hocus Focus should have 2 or 3 of those stickers

 

[Canuckle]

Duplicate post deleted.

 

[Canuckle]

All the LED based Streamlight models have a warning sticker that says the LED's radiation level may cause eye damage...

Couldn't comment on the specifics, though.

Radiation?

Well, let's not forget that visible light is also, technically, radiation.

There's UV radiation.
There's IR radiation.
There's ionizing radiation..., and you don't want to go near that one.