UV Lights

[Andy!]

I no that UV light can damage health.But the UV lights that u can get for theatre (continuse use) or small ones for home use are they still bad for you?

[Ike]

I have worked in a club as the house electrician where we used quite large UV canons pretty much all the time. The only precaution I took was to point them at the ceiling so you didn't get people staring at the lamp for hours on end.

 

I don't think you would get many experts in the field to say they were 100% safe however I think that would be the same with pretty much anything these days. I would have thought pretty much all UV lanterns, florries etc you will ever come across in the world of entertainments will be pretty safe, after all they are generally many times less powerful and further away than those used in sun beds etc.

 

Coincidentally a few days ago I spent the day welding without gloves on and now have a nice tan on my hands and lower arms!

[Andy!]

Oh excellent ok thank you.

[Jivemaster]

No-one in this litigatious time calles anything safe! UV is a hazzard but mainly for those who mis-use the luminaires. The UV at the grille where you put your hands to adjust the lamp is strong 5metres away its weaker.

 

I do remember reports of someone regularly long and often warming their hands in the vent from a discharge tube waggly mirror lamp and getting uvburns.

[Brian]

I do remember reports of someone regularly long and often warming their hands in the vent from a discharge tube waggly mirror lamp and getting uvburns.

Different 'sort' of UV. The UV given off by a discharge lamp contains a lot of short wave UV and is the same stuff that gives us sunburn. Passing this through ordinary glass will absorb a lot of the UV. The UV given off by something like a UV florescent tube (meant for display purposes) is long wave UV and is much safer. Note that you should not use UV tubes designed for sunbeds or similar, they do not filter out the short wave UV.