# the "blue light hazard" and blindness **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806 "2009-04-03T03:30:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Man\_from\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Man\_from\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_from_Mars)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/1 "2009-04-03T03:30:10Z")
My brother warned me the other day, before I sat down to a nice steak dinner, that a study in Australia has found that eating red meat may cause blindness. I later found the specifics of this particular study found that \*too much \*red meat can accelerate macular degeneration. In this particular study, the subjects who were affected ate ten portions of red meat a week. Such a number is obviously beyond a moderate number. It’s likely that the folks who ate so unhealthily had other health problems too. Reading more on the condition macular degeneration, I learned about a new potential cause: namely something called the “blue light hazard.” [http://www.mdsupport.org/library/hazard.html](http://www.mdsupport.org/library/hazard.html) In short, there is a possibility that too much absorption of blue light could ruin the retina and lead to serious vision damage, including macular degeneration, particularly in those with retinal problems to begin with. Some studies find a link, others find no link. In any case, there are some tips as to avoiding blue light, if one wants to be safe. The simplest way may be to wear yellow-tinted lenses. Another may be just moving to a nice cozy cave somewhere, avoiding sunlight and artificial lighting altogether, but I don’t really want to do that. I don’t want to worry myself unnecessarily but it wouldn’t hurt to become more knowledgeable on the matter. I also don’t want to wear yellow glasses if I don’t have to. What about looking into my computer screen four to eight hours a day? Does blue light come from a computer screen and how would that be affected by manipulating the color information in the screen menu? I know also that there are natural defenses against this supposed hazard but evolution has been outpaced with the way humans use their eyes these days and (hopefully not) for each part defense there’s two parts looking directly into an artificial sun you can carry in your pocket. Or am I worrying for nothing? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/2 "2009-04-03T08:33:50Z")
Well, you need some light for vitamin D synthesis. Bet you didn’t know you were photosynthetic! But yeah, get some amber shades for outdoor work. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/3 "2009-04-03T13:01:30Z")
Avoiding looking at the Straight Dope logo might be wise, too. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/4 "2009-04-03T13:39:05Z")
Blue light is in light. Good luck avoiding it! In case you haven’t noticed a pattern in many ‘studies’, there are people who get way too much of something…way outside the norm…and they seem to run the risk of developing or getting ‘something’. Everything in moderation is a good tip. If you’re predisposed, then moderation might be too much. Quite frankly, the stress from worrying about too many things is more damaging, so chill out! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/5 "2009-04-03T15:12:52Z")
You should wear sunglasses and limit you intake of red meat even if you aren’t worried about macular degeneration. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/6 "2009-04-03T15:20:54Z")
I wear my sunglasses at night 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/7 "2009-04-03T15:23:50Z")
The more serious concern with blue light is that it impairs your vision now, because the eye doesn’t process it well. Yellow lenses make things sharper because they block blue wavelengths. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/8 "2009-04-03T15:52:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Yellow lenses make things sharper because they block blue wavelengths. > [@](#): > > The human lens becomes increasingly yellow with age and thereby reduces our perception of blue light. This coloration is associated with lens proteins (crystallins), but its molecular basis was unknown. Here we show that the coloration occurs because of the interaction of crystallins with a UV filter compound, 3-hydroxykynurenine glucoside (3-OHKG). Crystallin modification results from deamination of the 3-OHKG amino acid side chain, yielding an unsaturated ketone that is susceptible to nucleophilic attack by cysteine, histidine, and lysine residues. This novel protein modification contributes to age-related lens coloration and may play a role in human nuclear cataractogenesis. [http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/274/46/32547](http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/274/46/32547) ---
**Author:** ![Man\_from\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Man\_from\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_from_Mars)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/9 "2009-04-03T17:55:56Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > Blue light is in light. Good luck avoiding it! > > In case you haven’t noticed a pattern in many ‘studies’, there are people who get way too much of something…way outside the norm…and they seem to run the risk of developing or getting ‘something’. Everything in moderation is a good tip. If you’re predisposed, then moderation might be too much. > > Quite frankly, the stress from worrying about too many things is more damaging, so chill out! I think this is the best advice! I was expecting a whole bunch of replies on the best way to adjust the color scheme on my monitor but see not many others are concerned and so I probably should just to chill out. At least until the next study comes out! ---
**Author:** ![flex727](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@flex727](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flex727)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2009, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-blue-light-hazard-and-blindness/491806/10 "2009-04-03T18:27:35Z")
> [@Tony](#): > > I think this is the best advice! I was expecting a whole bunch of replies on the best way to adjust the color scheme on my monitor but see not many others are concerned and so I probably should just to chill out. At least until the next study comes out! The intensity of the blue light coming from your computer monitor is nowhere near that coming from the sun. Blue light is fairly high energy and only a couple of notches down from ultraviolet (which is definitely ionizing radiation and thus harmful), so it’s certainly possible that it could do some damage to sensitive tissue such as your retina. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to consider that when purchasing sunglasses and therefore select lenses that preferentially transmit less blue (i.e. brownish colored ones).