Staring endlessly into LED lights, like those found in your phone or tablet, could cause blindness. Dr. Neema Nayeb-Hashemi is an ophthalmologist at Kelsey Seybold and says fortunately, we are not subjected to the kind of bright lights lab rats were in a recent experiment that highlighted the dangers of too much light and therefore aren’t in much danger of it happening to us. “If we had continuous exposure to these LED lights non-stop for extended periods of time at close distances – which is very important – then there would be a problem,” he tells KTRH News. Absent that, we aren’t at grave risk. Young children, who because of shorter arm length could be exposed to too much light, should be monitored. Actually, Dr. Nayeb-Hashemi cautions, the dangerous exposure to LED lights might not come from the most modern electronics. “A lot of the exposure we have as a society to LED lights comes in the form of watching television, and most people watch television from a fairly good distance away. The further you are away the less problem there is going to be,” he advises. For more dangerous, is the human inclination to sit in front of a computer monitor, tablet or phone, and not blink. Dryness of the eye can lead to complications. Nayeb-Hashimi recommends periodically looking away from the screen, and allow your eyes about 30 seconds of rest every so often. And blink!
In a recent experiment, rats were exposed to white LED light for 12 hours a day for three months, and were found to have experienced a 23% increase in the number of cells that died in the retina.