Should I be afraid of black light?

Advice needed.

Setting up my Halloween decorations which includes a standard Zinc Sulfide glow in the dark spider. Knowing that a UV lamp will supercharge GID I went searching for a black light source. My cheapy $7 hand lamp had given out a few months ago, I didn't want the hassle of fastening up the traditional 18 inch tube and ballast set, and had gotten tired of wasting my money on the worthless incandescent black light bulbs.

Looking online I found that there are now compact fluorescent blacklight bulbs. My whole house is currently CF bulbs, I love these things. After a few stores I found a Mr Light 13 watt model for 9.99 at Spencer Gifts. Tried it out and it works great, the spider looks positively radioactive. And interestingly, the bulb bouncing off my window produces a slight mist effect in the room that I can't quite figure out...

But, now that I finally found a reliable, effective blacklight, I'm scared to death to use it for fear of what it might do to my and my kids' eyes if left on in the living room through the night. I have it in a directional reading lamp, but the tip of the bulb is still visible and the UV effect is pretty apparent nearby.

I happily attended graffiti parties in college (for the uninitiated: black lights, white t-shirts, highlighters and beer. Do the math) but that was when I was 19 and stupid. Now I'm 35, usually sober, and wanting not to damage my kids vision. Am I being paranoid?

As long as you don't stare directly into the light source for an extended time, you should be alright.

But remember, I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV or on the internet, so please take my recommendations with liberal amounts of crystalline sodium chloride (plenty of grains of salt).

But Craig...didn't you stay in a Holiday Inn once or save money on insurance at Geico? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I would not stare into the light it's self but other wise you should be fine. Most of these lights are long wave UV and are considered "eye safe"
I have one light that uses 2 20 watt bulbs and that gives Me a headache if I look directly at the bulbs, they feel very bright even though I don't see the light if that makes scence /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif But viweing the scattered light from objects in the room I have never had a problem.
I also have an 18 watt Short wave UV light that I built My self, now that is a whole diffrent beastie and is highly unwise to look at that bulb, it has a filter so it lights stuff up just as well(some items mutch better) as a normal black light but it will damage your eyes even for short exposures. Found that out the hard way /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hahaha.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/duh2.gif
I had that "sand in the eyes" feeling for allmost 2 days.

At concerts and nightclubs they have hugely powerful uv lights. No one seems to go blind there.

Thanks Draco. And Craig, you already gave me good info on the bulb here. (Thank you)

Yeah greenlight, I thought about that. I'm just more nervous about stuff that I'm personally responsible for putting there. I know that I shouldn't be trusted. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I just ordered a 32 led converter for my 3C M@glite from eBay. I bought it to make use of an unused light and for the fun of it (and I didn't have a UV light). We don't get scorpions here so can't really justify it that way.
Are there any inherent dangers apart from direct staring?
What are the fun things to look for/at?
Would it also damage animals eyes(we have cats)?
What about reflected light,could that be bad too?
Thanks, Phil.

Phil, here's a page I found that addresses some UV safety concerns. Don't know exactly which of the wavelength categories your's would fall under.

Thanks MM. Most interesting if a little worrying! :-O

Compact Fluro blacklights are UVA radiators, nothing really to worry about, just don`t sit and stare at the lamp from short range for hours on end.

Now 400W mercury UV cannons are a bit differnt, can literlly get sunburn if you stand too close to them for too long.

To put it in perspective biggest source of UV around is the Sun which genertaes far more UVA, relatively harmless and UVB not so harmless than any electrical UV source around.

BTW part of your eye fluoresces which is possibly why you se the room as misty when the blacklight is on.

Adam