UV torch health concerns

[bullhead 0]

DoI need to be wary of these rays to my skin? I use the Ultra Fire 502UV and my fingers get warm when close to the light. By the way the resin cures nice and hard, no tackiness. 

Bullhead

[flytire 0]

Keep your fingers and eyes out of the beam and you’ll be okay 

why are your fingers in the way?

 

[bullhead 0]

Flytire, fingers occasionally in the way when holding fibers in position on large pike flies. Not a habit 

[Landon P 0]

UV rays, either from the sun or from artificial sources like tanning beds, can cause sunburn. Exposure to UV rays can cause premature aging of the skin and signs of sun damage such as wrinkles, leathery skin, liver spots, actinic keratosis, and solar elastosis. UV rays can also cause eye problems. -American Cancer Society 

[MuskyFlyGuy 0]

Bullhead

How about posting some of your pike flies?

[SilverCreek 0]

16 hours ago, Landon P said:

UV rays, either from the sun or from artificial sources like tanning beds, can cause sunburn. Exposure to UV rays can cause premature aging of the skin and signs of sun damage such as wrinkles, leathery skin, liver spots, actinic keratosis, and solar elastosis. UV rays can also cause eye problems. -American Cancer Society 

Hi Landon,

Questions about the safety of the UV light from these UV flashlight comes up occasionally in fly fishing forums. Since I am a radiologist by training and part of my specialty board test is radiation physics, I think I can allay your fears about the UV light from these flashlights,

The UV spectrum is quite broad extending from visible light all the way to X-rays.

You can see from the chart above that the UV spectrum is labeled from as UV-A, B, C. etc.

As the wavelength gets shorter, from 400 nM down to 100 nM, the energy goes up and the potential for damage goes up.

What is important is that the UV spectrum that is used to cure the UV gels used in fly tying are the ones in the "near UV range", that is at the upper most range of UV just under 400 nM, very close to visible light. In fact these UV flashlights do give off visible light! If they ONLY emitted pure UV light WE COULD NOT SEE THE LIGHT!

So no worries. The UV light these flashlights give off is UVA which is less powerful than the UVB you get when you are outside in the sunlight.

https://sunlightinstitute.org/the-sun-and-uv-light/

[niveker 0]

Interesting, thanks SilverCreek.  

[DFoster 0]

38 minutes ago, SilverCreek said:

Hi Landon,

Questions about the safety of the UV light from these UV flashlight comes up occasionally in fly fishing forums. Since I am a radiologist by training and part of my specialty board test is radiation physics, I think I can allay your fears about the UV light from these flashlights,

The UV spectrum is quite broad extending from visible light all the way to X-rays.

You can see from the chart above that the UV spectrum is labeled from as UV-A, B, C. etc.

As the wavelength gets shorter, from 400 nM down to 100 nM, the energy goes up and the potential for damage goes up.

What is important is that the UV spectrum that is used to cure the UV gels used in fly tying are the ones in the near UV range, that is at the upper most range of UV, very close to visible light. In fact the UV flashlight do give off visible light! If they ONLY emitted pure UV light WE COULD NOT SEE THE LIGHT!

So no worries. The UV light these flashlights give off is UVA which is less powerful than the UVB you get when you are outside in the sunlight.

https://sunlightinstitute.org/the-sun-and-uv-light/

Great information Silver!

[vicrider 0]

I have a small but powerful UV laser to cure my flies. I had it with me one night and was being attacked by a vampire. I pulled out the light and zapped him with it. He screamed and ran and I saw his skin burn where the laser hit him. Since then when walking at night I always carry that laser light and also my UV flashlight for personal protection.

By the way. You guys get way too technical on some of this stuff.

[SilverCreek 0]

Simple version:

Food in - Poop out

Technical version:

[cphubert 0]

^^^^😁

[niveker 0]

That's pretty much the picture I get in my head when my son starts talking mathematical theories to me.  

[Ephemerella 0]

Sorry gents,

The UVA LED flashlights can be hazardous, depending on the emitted power, and wavelength. Solarez needs 385 nm and typically one uses a 370- 390 nm.  The Solareze high power UVA flash lights are in the 1-3W range at 385nm.  Looking at a UK-made light at 365 nm (more active - more of a hazard) , this

Manual for 365nm 5 Watt UV LED flashlight

is a 5W unit.  Using the UK UVA exposure standards:

Eye exposure limit (unprotected) at 20 cm to 40 seconds a day - that is looking at the beam. Of course reflections from fly heads and the surrounding vise are less, maybe 5%. So that's about 13 minutes/day. Plus the Solareze and similar lights are only like 1-3 watts, so maybe that is bumped to 26 minutes  per day. Probably even 8-9 hrs of tying won't hit that limit. Smaller UV lights allow even more exposure time. But if you are tying at a fly tying demo, you need to be careful not expose the guests to the beam!

Skin exposure limit (unprotected) at 20 cm is 46 minutes per day, and for a 3 w unit, that is like 92 minutes/day.  But if you are holding the fly when you illuminate it, you are at maybe 2 cm from the beam, so the power increases as 1/distance-squared, so 100 times stronger and so 1/100 of the exposure which is about 1 minute/day.  At 5 seconds per fly, you skin hits its exposure limit after a dozen flies. Not good.  So do NOT hold the fly when exposing it to the UV light. Again, smaller UV lights allow even more exposure time.

The problems of UVA exposure are minor burns and cataracts, plus some potential retina damage.

-Peter

[knotjoe 0]

From now on I'm only fishing at night.😧

[SilverCreek 0]

You don't need a 365 nm light to cure my resins. They are formulated to cure with a 385 - 395 nm lights.