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Comment by hollerith | Hacker News Reader

>if you Google you can find plenty of studies and resources suggesting NIR can be safe and effective for the eyes as well.

Infrared in the eye causes cataracts, a fact that is all over Google search results. Workers in steel mills for example are about 26 times more likely to need cataract surgery than others their age, but maybe it is not the near-infrared fraction doing that?

I've seen many studies of the effects of red light on the eye, but none of the effects of NIR on the eye, but in avoiding exposing the eyes of experimental human subjects to NIR, maybe researchers are using an overabundance of caution?

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The wavelength is very important too. 808nm is damaging to the eyes for example, but has wound healing properties when applied directly to injuries[1]. This kind of stuff is a great example of the vast trove of interesting research that nobody outside the alt health world will ever do much with.

[1]https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C3&q=808n...

Most people in the health field don't know about a lot of it either. Unless they're a researcher, they just stick to the protocol on their Epic screen for the most part.

This is so sad but true. In my experience, most doctors learn approximately nothing after graduating medical school. The miracle of AI will be that it will replace these useless people.

You can melt rocks with any wavelength, it really depends on the power, cataracts included (assuming non ionizing wavelengths).

I work for hours in my VR headset, with eye tracking enabled...I should probably check up on what that power is.

edit: My point seems to have been missed. IR in the eyes will cause cataracts, but it requires extreme power. It's the heating from the extreme power causing the cataracts, not the wavelength of the photons. The wavelength of the photon just helps that power get absorbed in a way that it's not noticed by things like the retina. IR lasers are especially dangerous because you won't look away/blink, or know besides feeling the heat.

The molten metal is what radiates the IR

No one uses electromagnetic radiation to melt steel or help make steel.

Well, that's technically false [1]. Metal laser cutting/surfacing is common. My point was (besides ionizing radiation), it's not the wavelength that matters, it's the intensity. I changed "steel" to "rocks" to help make the point clear.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5vsUta5lmo

https://fairmontmachinery.com/30kw-on-1-inch-steel/

Wasn't that supposed to be UV damage?

UV might cause cataracts, too.

Avoid looking at any kind of light, got it.

Except the light you can’t see :D

They light is dangerous too. You do not want to put you had in a microwave oven.

There is no hope.

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