Orb Optronix Says Some LED Products Not Eye-safe
January 8, 2009...Orb Optronix of Kirkland, Washington USA, reports that several solid state lighting products they have measured might cause retinal injury if viewed directly. According to the company, which measured commercially available solid state lighting products, several exceeded the risk group category RG-1 blue light hazard limits in the ANSI/IESNA RP-27.3-07 'Recommended Practice for Photobiological Safety for Lamps, Risk Group Classification and Labeling' standard along with IEC 62471:2006. The RG-2 categorization cautions against direct viewing of light sources with the human eye.
David Jenkins, Orb's president stated, "It is clear from our testing that SSL products exist that exceed the ANSI standard's limits." ANSI's RP-27 describes the 'blue light photo-biological hazard' as the 'potential for a photochemically induced retinal injury resulting from radiation exposure primarily between 400 nm and 500 nm.'
The company concluded that testing should be done by luminaire manufacturers because the hazard levels in the standard are specific to the operating conditions of radiating products. The company says that it is essentially impossible for LED component manufacturers to provide conclusive eye safety information specific to the end product implementation of their parts because the information would be different for each end product that the LED components are in. The company contends that for this and other reasons, it is critical that product manufacturers incorporating LEDs properly test and label their products for their intended system application