According to a study led by Dr. Celia Sánchez-Ramos, of Complutense University in Madrid, light from LEDs comes from the short wave, high-energy blue and violet end of the visible light spectrum. She indicated that prolonged and continuous exposure to LED light might be sufficient to damage the retina. In a recent interview, she indicated that the problem would worsen as people live longer and children use electronic devices at a young age, particularly for schoolwork.
Her study, published in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology in 2012 found that LED radiation caused significant damage to human retinal pigment epithelial cells in vitro. She states that humans are exposed to artificial light for the majority of the approximately 6000 hours annually their eyes are open.
LEDs have also been blamed for bleaching the paint on such masterpieces as Van Gogh and Cézanne in art galleries. The professor of the University College of Optics at the Complutense says LED lights are made up of rainbow longitude waves, but it’s the blue part that causes the problem.
Offering up some possible aid, she indicates that using good sunglasses with UV filter rays, and a healthy and varied diet rich in Vitamin A – which comes from spinach and peppers – will protect the eyes. It seems to me that most LED lighting is indoors where people seldom use sunglasses.
As far as the food goes, she indicates that Vitamin A has a high concentration of visual pigments, known as maculars, which are responsible for absorbing the harmful elements of light such as short-wave blue and violet rays. However, human being's ability to store these pigments reduces with age.
The MAPFRE Foundation, the charitable arm of the Spanish insurance company MAPFRE, financed the professor’s investigation into eye damage caused by LEDs.
So, what do you think? Is there really something here? I think I’m moving my desk outside and only working daylight hours. How about you?
Also see :
Why not put a UV-absorbing or UV-dispersing coating on the LEDs themselves?
When LED's first came to be it was not uncommon for someone to look it them directly, since they were not very bright in those days. Now looking at them directly, especialy hi power LED's is not something anyone should ever think of doing.. ..Just use com
Exactly my thought John. A very easy solution.
How much would it cost to add the UV-absorbing or UV-dispersing coating?
Why not? … because there is not UV output in an LED. The issue is the shorter blue wavelengths.
First of all, a reality check is in order. Okay, 6000 hours a year in front of blue and violet LEDs causes damage, how does this damage compare to the damage done when working outdoors (sunlight) for 6000 hours a year? I suspect the sun is much worse.
Star
We should note that the author does sell glasses that filter out shorter wavelengths of visible light so it there is the potential for bias.
This “study” depending on the one and the data referenced looked at raw tissue, not in-situ human eye damage and/o
I think this is hogwash. When the sun shines we (generally) live under a bright blue sky which does have a substantial UV element in its spectrum, (unlike LED's which have NO UV), especially in the mountains. I'm quite sure from our genesis in the high pla
This is academic scare-mongering at its worst. Look at the levels and duration's that would have to be endured to cause a problem. These people are so removed from reality they may as well be on another planet.
The last time I heard of this, I was able to
“No UV” in LEDs? I guess it depends on which wavelenghts you consider “UV”. My understanding is that, without UV, white LEDs would not operate because they need UV to excite the phosphor that creates the white light. Also, my blue “UV” flashlight does a go
If you are worried about it, buy some clear UV blocking glasses.
Probably because the low levels emitted require a lifetime of exposure to have a detectable effect, so there is hardly any need for it. The eye has natural mechanisms to deal with UV light. The damage detected in vitro by this study is repaired in around a
Well said.
There seems to be an unfortunate blurring of good solid science, and marketing FUD “white paper” here.
It seems that a bit more rigor could be added. How about a plot of the power spectral density for the wavelengths of interest for various devices, and
UV absorbtion: many contact lenses do filter UV light; Accuvue lenses do better than 95%.
I was involved in spectroscopy tests of a product using white LED's a few years back; the harder white LED's are driven, the more pronounced the blue end became.
“People want cheap displays and efficient lighting, they don't want the best we can produce”
The common man really does not know what he wants – he takes what is available and / or what is forcefully marketed. Obviously, he would take what comes cheap wit
OMG – Don't the editors here do ANY form of fact checking???
THERE IS NO UV EMITTED FROM AN LED UNLESS IT'S A UV LED!!!
Check the spectral output of ANY LED. You'll find ALL the radiated energy is in a very narrow peak around it's dominant wavelength (wi
It just came to me….. What IF I take a coil of wire, like a ballpoint pen spring, suspend it between two electrodes in a glass vacuumized environment, and I'll pass a current through this “spring”. It should get hot enuf to glow, and I'll be able to rea
I've wondered about the extremely bright and blue LEDs used in law enforcement. I wonder if my irises are even responding to the brightness – the way some lights flash from zero to bright should affect my ability to see other things on the darkened roadw
Strongly agreed. Some of the facts stated here are so inaccurate, this article should be removed immediately.
Well, Kyle, I think it's time you did a little fact checking. First, there is really no such thing as a white LED. “White LEDs” can be made using groups of LEDs of different colors to simulate white light of different color temperatures, depending on the
I've got a UV LED flashlight source with a high pass filter so that none of the residual visible light from the LED's can be seen. You cannot see the LED's through the filter when not powered as visible light is so highly attenuated. But you can “feel” t
Let's not go overboard: exposure to intense light of any kind is capable of damaging your eyes. One can determine approximate age from the yellowing of corneas alone. Sunlight is dangerous and certain occupations such as pilots and mountain guides suffer f
Sunlight provides a nominal irradiation of 1 kW/m2 with a CCT of ~5800 K … higher for each at high altitudes (up to ~1,3 kW/m2) with a peak at ~400 nm. A 13 W LED lamp provides ~2.6W with a peak at ~450 nm. The total irradiance of a LED light at 1 m dist
The really short wavelength blues (includes violets, and many of these blues look violet) can cause damage iff exposed to too much of it. White LEDs and LED lights use these blues as excitation sources, so if you lose the phosphor part pf a remote phosphor
Hi altitudes? Like outside the atmosphere for 1.3 kW/m2. The peak occurs closer to 550 nm. Given there are many types of LED's, I don't think you can make a statement as to the relative irradiance of an LED vs. indirect sunlight. And I'm not sure where
is there a double blind corroborating design or experiments?
This doesn't surprise me much… I've noticed that the LED in my 3-D Cell maglight will fluoresce automotive oil dye well enough to use if I can't find my UV light, not that I make a habit of staring at it.
Please examine your facts
Blue LEDs utilized for white light are 450nm emitters. They are referred to as “white LEDs”. The phosphor down conversion absorbs much of this light and reconverts to green, yellow, and red. There is no significant component o
Simply because there is no UV light emitted – it is a waste of money. Additionally every interface layer introduced limits the efficiency of your lamp. By following a red herring you will inadvertantly waste money first on things that do not exist….and
The answer is obviously no, they do not fact check anything. This is simply scientific burlesque leaving an open – is there anything to this? at the end. Intended to solicit responses while leaving themselves the silken interface to perserve their dignit
irradiation of the white LED is above 400 nm and is not within the ultraviolet light region. However, the analysis of spectrum distribution demonstrated that the family LED lighting exhibited power-peak at 450 nm is within the blue light region. Histologic
Doug, you have a good point about incandescent lighting emitting UV radiation. We use high color temperature (3200K) quartz lighting in our TV studio, and precautions do need to be taken to avoid too much UV radiation from these lamps. Most of these fixtur
Kyle, while you are certainly entitled to your opinion, and you also can certainly post as professionally or unprofessionally as you choose, please read the rest of the posts in response – some disagreeing with you.
Thank you, however, for posting. I app
This has got to stand tall as one of the most bogus, headline-grabbing stories/reports as I've read in a long time. At this point, I'd suggest to not take is seriously. Have some fun at the professor's and the author's expense.
Interesting.
Their might be something here, but the data / experiment would seem flawed.
Our eyes are set up for broad spectrum light. If your experiment is blasting them with focused bandwidth then the eyes mechanisms will not work – for example if you po
Perhaps my response was a bit excited, but it's only because my BS alarms were all going off full-blast. Sorry about that 🙁
You would be very surprised at my professional knowledge level of this subject. Are you familiar with EN60825? This is the Eu
As others have mentioned, white LEDs of the phosphor type generally do NOT use UV die. They use blue ~450nm. Not to say UV wouldn't work, but that's just not what they use. Check any datasheet, including (especially) from Nichia, the holder of the ori
There are no “white” LEDs that emit UV? Wrong!
http://techcrunch.com/2008/09/26/toshiba-develops-uv-led-with-extremely-white-lighting/
Should we be concerned? It depends…
I have supervised several student projects lately where the students actually measured the spectra of commercial white LEDs. None of those white LEDs used a UV chip as the primary source, all have the phosphor excitation performed by a 450nm LED.
While i
…interestingly there does not appear to be any “real” scientific publication by this author on this particular topic. EDN seems to just quote a circular press release which originates from the news channels UPI.com, ThinkSpain.com and msn.com
Compared t
So Kyle, given your knowledge on the subject, why haven't I seen an abstract from you so that you can share this knowledge on this, or something related on this site? I accept the apology, but would like to see this energy focused in a more positive way.
The link you quote is from 2008 and describes a design which was supposed to be on the market in 2010. However, I wonder what happened in between. I assume that the blue 450nm LEDs became better much faster, together with an improvement in the matching pho
Of course this is all assuming the idiots don’t decide to tax internet sales to 50 states and a billion jurisdictions driving most of the little guys out of the market.
http://www.dgbuildersac.com/
Of course this is all assuming the idiots don’t decide to tax internet sales to 50 states and a billion jurisdictions driving most of the little guys out of the market.
http://www.dgbuildersac.com/
Using good sunglasses with UV filter rays, and a healthy and varied diet rich in Vitamin A, which comes from spinach and peppers, we can protect our eyes. LED is great to use with adequate protection.
Using good sunglasses with UV filter rays, and a healthy and varied diet rich in Vitamin A, which comes from spinach and peppers, we can protect our eyes. LED is great to use with adequate protection.
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Most high-intensity white LEDs use blue emitters AFAIK – ~450nm. There's very little output once you get down to 400nm.
I've got some 405nm LEDs, and a “flashlight” too, with 12 of the LEDs. I think this is just on the edge of what is considered UV, but I
Since visible region LEDs Royal Blue (450nm) Blue(470nm) through Green (535nm) and on through deep Red (650nm) do not produce UV, a UV-absorbing or UV-dispersing coating would have zero effect. The same is true of “White” LEDs. An incandescent bulb does
Carolyn Mathas,
Since visible region LEDs Royal Blue (450nm) Blue(470nm) through Green (535nm) and on through deep Red (650nm) do not produce UV, a UV-absorbing or UV-dispersing coating would have zero effect. The same is true of “White” LEDs. An incand