Is UV light safe for the eyes?

[Vio1]

I was under the impression that UV lights were bad to look at.... do they harm the eyes?

[tom10167]

No, not at all. :) I mean, not any more than staring in a regular light bulb.

[OKJEFF4]

Staring at UV LEDs can cause problems.

[SpaceRangerJoe]

Most of the stuff you will find for a computer won't be very high intensity. Just don't stare into them for extended periods of time, and you should be fine. I have 2 UV CCFL and some UV LED fans, and my eyes are fine :D.

[Cerberus2k7]

I find my UV CCFLs very fun to look at. I don't have any problems! I'm looking at them right now! *Starts puking uncontrollably* :p

[Mark620]

I have heard you can get burned retinas from UV and not know it. It does depend on the strength. I once looked at buying a UV illuminator and it had a warning sticker about eye damage and blindness....

[Vio1]

i read up on uv lighting in computer cases http://www.dansdata.com/uv.htm and its says its pretty much safe because it isnt very strong.

[4dsux]

the uv light in my case doesn't make it through the window, at least nothing glows on the other side of the window.

[SpaceRangerJoe]

If you can see the light, then that means that it makes it out of the window. Also, remember that humans can not actually see UV light. The purpleish glow that we see is just light that is at a lower frequency in the spectrum than the UV, which is actually making stuff glow (if you have UV reactive stuff).

[Contra]

kindla like velvet Elvis posters glow with a "black" (UV) light

[penquissciguy]

It all depends on the wavelength of the light. The shorter the wavelength, the more energy the wave has and the more damaging it is. The stuff generated by blacklights should be OK.

Ken

[jimbobjones]

if UV was bad for the eyes they wouldnot be aloud to use blacklight uv equiptment in clubs ect

but i would still try not to stare at the UV source just in case

one thing i have heard though is that hard drive cabled can harden and crack up with prolonged UV lighting but there are coatings that can neutralise most of the UV source (like they use on sunglasses) if you are realy worried you may be able to cote your window to stop any stray UV from escaping

[nst6563]

personally I prefer to stare at lasers instead of UV lights. much more effective for promoting retinal damage IMO.:p