User:Kurrajongbrown/sandbox

LED lights, headaches, and eye health
LED lamps may present three risks - flicker which is potentially worse than with fluorescent lighting, mainly risking headaches; high source intensity due to the very small emitting area, which people should not look at directly as it is excessively bright; and "the blue light hazard", which is a risk for retinal damage and probably macular degeneration.

Flicker
The first hazard is due to secondary manufacturers taking shortcuts with electronic ballasts.

High source intensity
Extremely bright point sources should possibly never be looked at. The second is due to design of the light bulb or luminaire and can be overcome either by indirect lighting, effective shading or diffusion.

Blue light hazard
Shorter wavelength visible light (green, blue, indigo, violet) has more energy than longer wavelengths (red, orange, yellow).

Some white LED lamps emit their strongest wavelength in the most hazardous blue region at around 450 nm.

The third is more fundamental add involves the design of the LED chip itself. There are cheap ways of producing white light, and more expensive ways, possibly involving fewer risks to the eye.

European ANSES-solicited request No. 2008-SA-04081 / 11 The Director General Maisons-Alfort, 19 October 2010 OPINION OF THE FRENCH AGENCY FOR FOOD ENVIRONMENTAL AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY in response to the internally-solicited request entitled “Health effects of lightingsystems using light-emitting diodes (LEDs)”