Blue light exposure / eye damage

[ratm909]

Hello,

I have very recently become a father, while spending time with my new born in the living room (where my tank is) I questioned myself about the bright blue light emitted throughout this part of the house.

I have a ap700 set on deep blue, its so bright that at night the light reflects all the way upstairs. After doing research my fears somewhat seem validated. From what I understand longterm exposure of 375-475nm light to eyes thats are still in development can be a serious issue down the line. We spend a good portion of our evenings as a family in the living room, she naturally looks at the tank a lot too, they lights are 6 feet above ground so she see can actually see the pucks directly at certain moments. (I try to shield her as best as possible, but it still bleeds into the rest of the house) and honestly i wont be able to shield her once she starts walking around.

I have not found any solid conclusions on this, it mostly refers to ipads and such, but i am wondering if anyone here has ever took a moment to think about this and could refer me to a good article/thread.

Thank you

 

[A sea K]

No good articles or reads that I am aware of. There was a post here not too long ago about this very subject and the poster revealed he had conferred with his eye Dr who informed him there was no danger to his children from the light. I say pure BS! it is your children and if the lighting has enough energy to grow coral then it has enough energy to damage young (and old eyes). It is your responsibility as a parent to safeguard your children from any possible harm. Don't intend to come off as harsh but you need to find a way to cover your light.

 

[ahuaia]

I can't but if you changed when the lights were on so that they could be off when you are all spending time together that might help unfortunately you wouldn't be able to see the fish and what not as well but it could reduce exposer to the lighting and if you still want to see you could buy some low intensity light for viewing during the day.

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[NeverlosT]

I considered it a bunch with our baby. We have an enclosed hood now so she only sees light emitted from the tank sides (much less).

I can tell you that as a teen I had a tank with T5s in my room and being around the light constantly my night vision really suffered.

I'd file this one under "better safe than sorry" and attempt to shroud the lights to prevent seeing the diodes directly.

Good luck and congrats!


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[Mishri]

I wonder what our ancestors did about that big light in the sky? I guess they probably kept the babies in caves during the day and only let us out at night...

-we naturally look away from things that can damage our eyes... but, many people every year end up at the doctor's with Photokeratitis... usually from welding, sometimes skiing.. looking at sources of UV light and not shutting their eyes/looking away even when their mind is telling them to.. and not wearing correct UV protective equipment.

so.. get some ski goggles for the little one... or sun glasses that filter uv.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I wonder what our ancestors did about that big light in the sky? I guess they probably kept the babies in caves during the day and only let us out at night...

-we naturally look away from things that can damage our eyes... but, many people every year end up at the doctor's with Photokeratitis... usually from welding, sometimes skiing.. looking at sources of UV light and not shutting their eyes/looking away even when their mind is telling them to.. and not wearing correct UV protective equipment.

so.. get some ski goggles for the little one... or sun glasses that filter uv.

A few of them looked at it a lot and then went blind. Didn't have to happen too many times before they figured it out.

IMHO, if the blue leds were a problem for us or even for just infants, I think you would have heard about it by now. They've only been around for what, 6 to 8 years?

 

[Desert Sea]

I have no scientific proof that blue light or any bright light for that matter is hazardous to an infant/toddler's eyes aside from what common sense dictates. I do have some firsthand knowledge regarding shielding an infant from the blue light spectrum. When our youngest was born she had jaundice from billyrubin (sp?) right after birth. As soon as we walked in the door with her from coming home from the hospital, the hospital called and said we had to bring her back for treatment. Treatment consisted of stripping her down to her diaper and placing her into a small bassinet type device that had what was the equivalent of a Radion mounted on it. She stayed under the "grow" light for a few days until her levels tested out correctly. While she was in the blue light tanning bed, they were very particular about her eyes being covered to protect them from the light and had her wear special little opaque goggles. Based on this I would say that there was concern about the exposure to the blue light spectrum.

As someone already mentioned, better to play it safe. You may also want to give your eye Dr. a call and get his/her opinion.

 

[djbon]

I have no scientific proof that blue light or any bright light for that matter is hazardous to an infant/toddler's eyes aside from what common sense dictates. I do have some firsthand knowledge regarding shielding an infant from the blue light spectrum. When our youngest was born she had jaundice from billyrubin (sp?) right after birth. As soon as we walked in the door with her from coming home from the hospital, the hospital called and said we had to bring her back for treatment. Treatment consisted of stripping her down to her diaper and placing her into a small bassinet type device that had what was the equivalent of a Radion mounted on it. She stayed under the "grow" light for a few days until her levels tested out correctly. While she was in the blue light tanning bed, they were very particular about her eyes being covered to protect them from the light and had her wear special little opaque goggles. Based on this I would say that there was concern about the exposure to the blue light spectrum.

As someone already mentioned, better to play it safe. You may also want to give your eye Dr. a call and get his/her opinion.

They use UV light to treat jaundice. I did quite a number of DIY reef light and personally believe the extreme brightness of LED did somehow affects my vision. DO NOT STARE directly at extreme light source, silly me . IMHO, OP should protect his new born baby from extremely bright lights (direct or indirectly) whenever possible.

 

[Wiskey]

I do know that my tank lights will cause migranes for my wife. For this reason I have an enclosed canopy, and a little micro switch hooked up to my APEX which cuts the lights when I open the lid. (retro is attached to the lid) I also have the sunset scedgule set for my area so that 2/3rds of the lights cut out at sunset. That way the tank is never way brighter than the rest of the room.

This fixed our issues.

Whiskey

 

[ratm909]

Wow lots of replies here this morning, thanks for all the great advice.

I will be moving to a dimming sunpower with cannopy. The high density pucks design on the kessil are a very concentrated source of light and i would need a 16" high canopy to hide it.

For those saying its we naturally look away at light, our eyes are not wired to have the same reflex when looking at blue light, it doesn't "feel" as bright as it truly is and thats one of the dangerous things about it.

 

[alton]

My children are 29, 26, 23. No issues with my kids and they have been around aquariums all there lives. I remember so well holding them up on my shoulder to watch the fish swim back and forth, so I could catnap for a few seconds.

 

[oreo57]

http://www.bluelightexposed.com/#where-is-blue-light-found

Blue light can help elevate your mood and boost awareness, but chronic exposure to blue light at night can lower the production of melatonin, the hormone that regulates sleep, and disrupt your circadian rhythm.

Harvard researchers have linked working the night shift and exposure to blue light at night to several types of cancer (breast, prostate) diabetes, heart disease, obesity and an increased risk for depression.

Researchers aren't exactly sure why exposure to blue light at night seems to have such detrimental effects on our health, but it is known that exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin and lower melatonin levels might explain the association with these types of health problems.

 

[alton]

You left out the sentence below
Sources of blue light include the sun, digital screens (TVs, computers, laptops, smart phones and tablets), electronic devices, and fluorescent and LED lighting.

Well the Government has made incandescent lamps illegal, so I guess we are back to reading books by candle light?

I do agree with kids spend way to much time looking at tablets and IPads. They should spend more time outside playing, but that is bad also.

I have been wearing glasses since I was 21, I guess over the last 45 years I thought it was a bad thing, but after reading the report I am blessed since my glasses have always had UV protectant lenses protecting me.

 

[ca1ore]

When my kids were small I made a sure that the there was no way for them to look up straight into the lights (was using metal halide back then). Cannot see how the 'blue' would be problematic, it's the intensity to worry about.

 

[Punchanello]

http://www.bluelightexposed.com/#where-is-blue-light-found

That website is somewhat alarmist and, not surprisingly, sponsored by companies that develop lenses and ophthalmic products.

Correlation doesn't necessarily equal cause. There's lots of evidence out there about screen technology blue light and it's effect on the brain, particularly on our capacity to fall asleep. Almost all of those symptoms are, not surprisingly, also linked to watching loads of TV and more importantly, sedentary lifestyle.

 

[otrips]

Would be interesting to see some sort of study of people who work in LFS's. They are exposed to it all day everyday.