UV Flashlight Safety Glasses

[Richwouldnt]

I have been experimenting a bit and noted that normal plastic lenses as used in both most prescription glasses and inexpensive drug store reading glasses seem to block virtually all the light output from 365nm ZWB2 filtered UV flashlights. A flashlight aimed at normal bond white paper, that fluoresces quite noticeably in a UV flashlight beam does not do so if the beam is shined through the glasses lens before reaching the paper. Also a glance at the LEDs in a ZWB2 filtered UV light covered with a plastic glasses lens look red rather than blue. All this indicates to me that the material in normal plastic glasses lenses should work fairly effectively for UV flashlight eye protection. The red LED appearance looks to me like the red that per the article on UV flashlights from 1LUMEN that ZWB2 filters let through in their tests.

A Google search for the following link also verified that Polycarbonate plastic does filter UVA and UVB light.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=polycarbonate+uv+filtering%3F

To me this indicates that virtually all plastic glasses lenses should provide considerable protection from UV sources including flashlights. I hope that members find this information useful. A quick test of your glasses is to get a sheet of bond paper that fluoresces when your UV light shines on it and then shine the light through your glasses lens. No visible fluorescing then the lens is providing considerable UV protection.

[Wingman]

I did a similar experiment earlier this year. It was with a UV flashlight without ZWB2 filter by the way.

UV light and visible range

It is maybe not directly showing students that UV is invisible, but it might be an interesting ‘experiment’ to show them. I used the only UV light that I currently have (Sofirn SP31 UV), which doesn’t have a ZWB2 filter, so there is extra/excess visible blue light, but for this experiment it didn’t really matter. I used a pair of (quality) clear safety glasses, which are rated as UV400 glasses. First I took a photo without the glasses, in which the paper (with highlight marker stripes) light u…

If I remember correctly I even tried a way cheaper generic/‘brandless’ pair of safety glasses, which also seem to work I believe. (Not that the safety glasses I used in those photos was a really expensive one. I think it was something like € 6,-)

[Henk4U2]

Please keep in mind that UV light is not only harmful for your eyes when the light is directed at you. Be aware of reflections of UV light on mirrors, window glass and even shiny kitchen and bathroom tiles?