UV dangers?

Been playing with my ARC-AAA UV that i got today, and i saw that on thier site there is a caution about UV radiation. How much of an issue do UV lights (both LED, Flourecent Blacklights, etc.) pose?

UV light can cause permanent eye damage, so it should never be shone directly at another person (or animal). It is far more damaging than other wavelengths of light.

the problem is that the UV led's available run the range from hardly even a black light to really dangerous levels of really high frequency UV. You need to find the specs for the LEd that Peter uses in the Arc and then look up that wavelength and see where it falls on the "make things fluoresce" to "give you a tan" and "burn out your eyes level."

I dont know what LED they use in the Arc, but it's almost certainly towards the black light side of the range which means that it would be safe to shine at other objects to see how they light up, but it is still not something that you want to shine into your own face or the face of others.

OK, I looked it up myself 375nm is UVA, long wave UV which is good for making things light up but is the safest of the range. That doesn't mean you want to shine it in your eyes though as that kind of damage can be cumulative slowly over time. Also since so little light your eye can see comes out of it that your iris wont close up if you do shine it in your eye which means that a lot more of the light will make it into your eye than from say a regular flashlight. You wont necessarily have the reflex to blink and look away and since you can't perceive it you wont realize just how much energy is getting pumped into your eye.

I was playing with my Peak Lead Kilimanjaro 360nm uv light and I was wondering the same thing. What is the most dangerous wave range of uv light ?

UV light is usually broken down into three subtypes: UVA (320-400 nm), UVB (290-320 nm), and UVC (200-290 nm).

UVC is the nasty one. It causes skin cancer from only low exposures. It is commonly used in germicidal lamps (like the algae killer in my pond filter system) and EPROM erasers.

Some high power lamps (like mercury vapour lapms) give off UVC, but they have a second glass envelope around the quartz envelope. UVC can't get through normal glass.

Just don't stare into the beam. You wouldn't be able to hold it against your skin long enough to be unhealthy. It would help to wear UV-blocking glasses.

I work occassionally with very powerful UV (~390nm, 1000microwatts per square centimeter minimum at 15" -- but closer to 3000mw/cm2 actual readings). There are no problems as long as I wear my appropriate PPE (UV-blocking glasses only). You're not going to get anywhere near that powerful with flashlights: the stuff in industrial use is mercury vapor filament bulbs of high wattage.

Simple, buy UV protective glasses, they are cheap and in-expensive but this also depends on the wavelength of the light, it still could damage the retina. I use many different UV lights, 15-30W fluorescent and 3W LED, the Fluorescent tubes give off a much stronger wavelength depending where you buy the light. The led you are using is most likely not too much of a threat as compared to some of the green looking UV lights.

I like my Peak LED Solutions Kilimanjaro 360nm UV and all... but it does not throw much... I mean... I must be real close to see something like less than 1' to a Canadian bill to see something. But it's cool because I can light a lot of things with this wavelength.

So I have a little question here:
Is there a good UV flashlight out there in the range of 350-380nm who can illuminate something farther than my PLS (about 5-6 feet) ? I want something with more power. I don't care too much about the price. The Streamlight Twin-Task 3C look pretty cool but there is only 3 375nm LEDs out of a total of 6 LEDs.


Thanks !

SpyPro;

A Cree 3W UV Led with a long throw reflector will light up a UV target @ 20 ft. easily.

A Triple 3W UV Light with long-throw reflectors will light up a UV target @ 40 ft.

I posted some photos of mods in this thread:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/179355

Larry Cobb

I can tell you from experience that if you wear glasses that use plastic lenses you're probably going to be fine. Let me explain. I was modding my PC with some CCFL blacklights, basically the same UV range as the LEDs you've got there. I had just gotten them and was testing them out in the kitchen which, due to an awning, was typically pretty dim as it was that afternoon. Anyways, the CCFLs are really thin and were supposed to be used inside an acrylic (plexiglas) tube for their protection. So anyways, I fired them up and was really disappointed with the output. I could see them, but they hardly made anything glow, even nearby. For whatever reason, I slid one out of the plastic tube and it was a whole different ballgame. Imagine the chorus of angels singing Aaaahhh! when I did. Suddenly stuff several feet away started glowing in the blacklight.

So, yeah, apparently acrylic and probably polycarbonate is not very transparent to UV light. If nothing else, wear a pair of safety goggles if you're worried about it. As long as you're not shining it right into your eye, the scattered light shouldn't be an issue. It's almost certainly going to be less than what your typical fluorescent blacklight gives off anyways and people have been spending hours a day staring at stuff illuminated by those while smoking weed for decades now and still haven't gone blind from it.

Interesting thread. Am I overly cautious? I own a StreamLight TwinTask 3C UV. The black model (as opposed to the ti colored model) has a setting where six UV LEDs are lit, three are 375nm and three are 390nm.

I've been careful to not even shine onto white cloth for fear of reflection, and recently have been using Big Ben goggles with UV protection when using the light. Do I really need to be this careful? Am I overdoing it?

Bolster said:

Interesting thread. Am I overly cautious? I own a StreamLight TwinTask 3C UV. The black model (as opposed to the ti colored model) has a setting where six UV LEDs are lit, three are 375nm and three are 390nm.

I've been careful to not even shine onto white cloth for fear of reflection, and recently have been using Big Ben goggles with UV protection when using the light. Do I really need to be this careful? Am I overdoing it?

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Those are pretty squarely in the UVA range which is fairly safe. As I noted in my last post, I doubt any battery powered flashlight is likely to output anywhere near the lumens of an AC powered florescent tube (which are, what, like 15-20 watts usually?) and people have been staring at stuff illuminated by those for decades now. While I wouldn't shine the light into my eyes, it can't do you any good, I doubt that the scatter from a white cloth is going to be that bad. Especially since the white cloth is probably going to absorb a lot of the UV and reradiate it as visible light anyways (that's what makes them glow under a blacklight).

Does anyone make a good shortwave uv flashlight, preferably in led?

Bolster said:

Interesting thread. Am I overly cautious? I own a StreamLight TwinTask 3C UV. The black model (as opposed to the ti colored model) has a setting where six UV LEDs are lit, three are 375nm and three are 390nm.

I've been careful to not even shine onto white cloth for fear of reflection, and recently have been using Big Ben goggles with UV protection when using the light. Do I really need to be this careful? Am I overdoing it?

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There's not really a downside to overdoing it in this case. You may not NEED to be so careful, but if it's nothing more than an inconvenience -- it's not as though you're going to block your peripheral vision enough to walk off a cliff.

UV light in 350nm+ band is pretty safe as long as you take precautions as with any bright light (LED lights can be quite "intense"). As UV in these wavelengths is mainly invisible, you can't judge how bright it is from how bright it "feels", but it will be affecting your eyes never the less. And your pupils will be dilated, letting in more light. But I've been in many night clubs where they routinely have 4' UV florescent tubes (350-360nm peak) lit all night without any problems that I know of. If you stare for a while into any bright light your sight is going to be affected, it follows that if you stare too long you might cause physical damage.


The lower wavelength you go the more dangerous the UV light. Some sources of dangerous UV light are:

• welding operations
• biological laboratories where gels are visualized
• areas in which germicidal UV lights are used, including biological safety cabinets
• libraries where UV light may be used to examine documents
• science laboratories where Mineralights are used to cause fluorescence
• mercury vapor lamps with broken or missing envelopes

Germicidal lights can be bought for water purification processes on ebay so beware.


Symptoms of over-exposure occur several hours afterwards and include:

• a burning and painful sensation in the eye
• a sensitivity to light
• the sensation of a foreign object in the eye, sometimes described as sand in the eye
• tearing

have used my UVAquastar with no problems.

uses a UVC florescent tube. UVC will not penetrate opaque water bottle, UVC tube operates inside.

pic of UVC tube

cy said:

have used my UVAquastar with no problems.

uses a UVC florescent tube. UVC will not penetrate opaque water bottle, UVC tube operates inside.

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Yea it will be safe as long as it's in the bottle.

This is an old thread, but I found it fascinating. I just bought an Inova X5 UV LED (UVC) flashlight and I was concerned it might be a problem. According to the above, I needn't have worried.

But what about green lasers (low powered)? I keep reading warnings about using them, but I don't think the low powered lasers are a problem as long as one doesn't look at the laser source.

Confederate said:

But what about green lasers (low powered)? I keep reading warnings about using them, but I don't think the low powered lasers are a problem as long as one doesn't look at the laser source.

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Any green laser with less output than a light sabre is perfectly safe. Just don't shine it in anyone's eyes. There's no ionizing radiation in green light, so the only (non eye) danger would be from heat burns, but you'd need a lot of power for that.