In the past, failures of “flashlight etiquette” (eg, shining a light into the eyes of another person) were annoying and sometimes pretty uncomfortable but in general couldn’t be considered particularly hazardous. Similarly failures in maintenance and/or handling might have created an awful mess as alkaline batteries leaked or even popped and might have even created a small fire hazard; but were not generally thought of as much of an overall danger. As we moved into common off-the-shelf multi-cell CR123 based lights it started to become more apparent that some serious consideration needed to be given to the risks of carrying batteries that were more energy dense and ran at higher voltages.
Now we are seeing more COTS (common-off-the-shelf) lights that are capable of 3,000+ Lumens some of which put all of that light into a very intense focus and are powered by individual cells or sets of batteries that pack in energy capacities of 3,000mAh, 9,000mAh, or more and I am thinking that maybe we need to revive conversations about safety where these “illumination tools” are concerned.
It’s NOT “just a flashlight” anymore
There are a lot of lights out there now that, in my opinion, go well beyond “flashlight” and into the same category as power-tools. While the risks and hazards are not quite the same as operating a lawn mower or a chainsaw but a number of the current crop of super- lights do have the potential for serious and permanent direct injury to self or others due to retinal/sight damage [EDIT: this is not a valid concern at this time], burns, and explosive injury from catastrophic failure. Studies done on a –single- 18650 cell show just how much energy is stored there, now multiply that by 3 or 4, packed in an aluminum canister, and you have a potential pipe bomb of impressive proportions, or at least something you REALLY wouldn’t want to be holding if it let loose.
Measuring Energy Release of Lithium-ion Battery Failure Using a Bomb Calorimeter (PDF)
Now I’m not advocating that people should have to wear safety goggles, gloves or other such nonsense but I genuinely believe that we have reached the point where it is irresponsible to hand a super-light to a kid or uninformed adult without some kind of basic safety lecture.
Some examples of what is bouncing around my head with regards to a safety reference;
- Why shining a light into eyes is actually hazardous (it can actually do permanent retinal damage)
- Why it is important to remove and examine the batteries if you drop the light (especially w/ 18650 cells) and what to look for.
- Why good quality cells are important (don’t make your light a hand grenade)
- Lights can get hot enough to burn and/or cause fires
- What to do with a “runaway” light
- How you can be signaling for help to some one a long way away and not even realize you are doing it
- Caution regarding boats on the water, aircraft, motor vehicles, and cyclists.
I look forward to your thoughts and input!