Solar Light’s Model PMA1121 Analog Blue Light Safety Sensor indicates the effective irradiance weighted by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) Spectral Weighting Function for Blue Light Hazard. Employers, safety officers and risk managers can use this sensor to protect workers against the effects of excessive daily blue light exposure. Such exposure, according to numerous medical studies, can inflict permanent and irreversible damage to the eye, causing visual field defects and visual impairment. Light sources that may produce a blue light hazard include monochromatic and collimated lasers, collimated arc, and tungsten lamps. To protect against retinal photochemical injury from chronic blue light exposure, the maximum exposure limit for a source subtending less than 0.011 radian should not exceed 10mJ/cm2 per 10,000 seconds of exposure (or approximately 2 hours 47 minutes.) For exposure periods greater than 10,000 seconds, the weighted irradiance should not exceed 1µW/cm2.
Typical blue light levels are:
150 W halogen lamp at 50 cm distance – 70 µW/cm
2150 W Xe arc lamp at 50 cm distance – 80 µW/cm
240 W fluorescent tube at 2 m distance – 5 µW/cm2