Are there dangers to being around HID lights?

[BAKIND]

Hello to all,

I had a friend of mine who years ago passed away from what started out as Melanoma. He worked at a tanning salon for many years where he may have been exposed to high levels of ultra violet light.

Last time I spoke with his family, many years ago, they were always suspect that this may have been the cause, however, there was never any concrete evidence, so they were left wondering.

Yesterday, I started wondering if there could be a danger from prolonged exposure to Metal Halide light or High Pressure Sodiums?

You can see my set up exactly on my journal if you like (in my signature) but I will just give you the basic details, here. I am growing in a tent right next to my bed where I sleep, because I basically have no other place. I am in a one bedroom apartment. I am using a blower to remove heat from the reflector. Both MH and HPS are 400 Watts.

I would like to know, if anyone considers HIDs dangerous to your health because of the different spectrums of light they emit, or are these not in high enough levels to really worry about? Any information, guidance, or precautions provided would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Aside from the obvious common sense aspects (don't spray water around an HID while it's in operation or hot from having recently been so, do not look directly at Sol or really intense/bright artificial lights, et cetera)...

Unjacketed metal halide bulbs emit a fair bit of UV - that's why they're not approved for installation in open fixtures where people will be. It is also why they're offered in some Alpha-Cure industrial curing-process machines, are sold as reptile bulbs, etc.

If you're not sure, wear long-sleeved clothing, a big sun hat, or simply turn the thing off and use some kind of residential home light to do your plant maintenance, then fire the plant lighting back up when you exit the grow space.

And it's a good idea to wear eye protection (aka "sunglasses" ) whenever you're working directly under any strong light source - once your vision goes, you're not getting it back.

EDIT: I don't guess I spend significantly more time outdoors than the next person. A year or so ago I had an LED grow light panel set up, and there was no "fourth wall" between the garden and where I spent a lot of time. I now have liver spots on my arms - and I'm not even 50 years old! I cannot swear there's a direct correlation between these two things, but I strongly suspect it.

 

[BAKIND]

Aside from the obvious common sense aspects (don't spray water around an HID while it's in operation or hot from having recently been so, do not look directly at Sol or really intense/bright artificial lights, et cetera)...

Unjacketed metal halide bulbs emit a fair bit of UV - that's why they're not approved for installation in open fixtures where people will be. It is also why they're offered in some Alpha-Cure industrial curing-process machines, are sold as reptile bulbs, etc.

If you're not sure, wear long-sleeved clothing, a big sun hat, or simply turn the thing off and use some kind of residential home light to do your plant maintenance, then fire the plant lighting back up when you exit the grow space.

And it's a good idea to wear eye protection (aka "sunglasses" ) whenever you're working directly under any strong light source - once your vision goes, you're not getting it back.

EDIT: I don't guess I spend significantly more time outdoors than the next person. A year or so ago I had an LED grow light panel set up, and there was no "fourth wall" between the garden and where I spent a lot of time. I now have liver spots on my arms - and I'm not even 50 years old! I cannot swear there's a direct correlation between these two things, but I strongly suspect it.

Google "The Dark Side of LED Lighting". I think we have to protect ourselves from all of these types of lights. I will be wearing long sleeves, dark glasses, and being as cautious as I can. Thank- You.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

The sun causes cancer as well my friend, why we wear sun screen

Like anything, we should always be cautious.

Under my blurple lights, besides a quick pic, I wore led sunglasses, same under my MH/HPS, mainly easier to see the true buds color

But I never lay under them, nekkid for an hour or so, 3x a week......lol

 

[Mars Hydro]

So it is my first time knowing that the lights can do harm to our body. Though I know the sun do, so I use the sun cream everyday to protect my skin. I guess it will be harmful to human body as long as there is light spectrum existed. Some will do good, but some will do bad, and as long as you are exposure your skin into it for a long time, the good one can also turn bad. So we need some protection. I forward this to our developing department, maybe they might come out something in future.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Intense light is going to be a potential danger to unprotected eyes, regardless of the source, if it is intense enough. The skin damage is, as far as I know, related to the UV output. That UV appears to be a good thing for plants, and common sense tells us to cover up when working under light sources which produce it, and to not use such lights in an "open environment" (such as a bedroom closet, with its door open, when we are sitting at the desk a few feet away.

Sadly, many of us have become adept at muting that internal voice of common sense. In truth, I do not know if there would be anything a light manufacturer's engineering department could (or even should) do in this regard. Maybe your marketing department could triple the size of the font in the manual (and in online product descriptions) that the standard warnings of this nature use (I assume you already have something like this in your product instruction booklets, but that's just a guess, as I have not yet had the opportunity to use one) so that the information would be that much harder to miss. But some people will still end up missing even a warning in BIG, BOLD, RED TEXT - or will end up ignoring it if they do see it.

We have an expression here in English that is often abbreviated as RTFM, which stands for "Read the... fine manual!" It is generally treated as a joke, as in, "When all else fails, read the directions." They've been putting warnings on cigarette packs for years that basically state the product will kill its users. Admittedly, that is one of the most addictive products in the world, but still...

I do thank you for being concerned with your customers' safety, though!

EDIT: I just remembered that I have one LED grow light product that has three switches, and one of those is for its UV output (which is a separate 15" or 18" reptile-type supplemental UV bulb). That switch even has a separate power cord so that the user has the option of setting it up on a separate timer - and so that, depending on how their setup is in terms of where things are plugged in, they can shut it off before ever entering the garden whilst still keeping the rest of the unit in operation. But I do not know if such a mechanism would even be feasible with your product designs.

 

[Advocate420]

Agreed.
UV is the cancer causing radiation some call light. Yes protection should be recommended. Eyes especially.

 

[LEDXpert]

Anything with UV is an issue. Too intense light can cause issues too but of different variety.