UV light leak?

[Himbo]

Hello, probably a dumb question, but I figured better safe than sorry. :o

I just bought a UV filter and set it up. The instructions said to never look at the light as it may cause eye damage - fair enough, it's meant to kill all kinds of nasty stuff.

Noticed though that because the hose attachment is opaque, the UV light is seeping through (see picture below). I assume this light is safe? Can someone explain the physics of this and allay my fears? Thanks

[korbi_doc]

Maybe not the physics of the light effects on the retina, (resulting destruction of the rods & cone cells of the retina) someone else may be able to tell you that. But, I have sev'l UVs & the tubing from them is black so there is no visible evidence of the light. In your situation, I don't think its a real problem since it would be rather indirect exposure, not the same as looking directly at the lighted bulb, which is what you are being warned about. However, having said that, I would be cautious & either change the tubing to black, or, even quicker, just wrap the tubing in black electrical tape from the plastic opening down sev'l inches, then no problem.. JMO, Dottie

[Himbo]

The tubing that came with the filter was clear! The one you see is my own. But most of the light is not coming through from the tubing, it is coming through from the attachment thing, which attaches to the filter itself. I can't change that part. I guess I might just have to wrap some tape over it. Why couldn't they have just made the stuff black, like the rest of the filter?!?!

[RandalB]

That shows you that the unit is on and operating. Dottie is right, that light won't hurt you, it's being filtered through translucent plastic fittings. Other UV units have small ports that give you an indication that the light is on and operating. As long as you don't take a close look at the bulb while the unit is on you should be fine.

RandalB

[Moon]

The UV lamps used are germicidal type with short wave UV. Short wave UV can harm your retina. These are uasually contained in a hard glass tube which absorbs the short wave and transmits the long wave that is reasonable safe to look at. I am not sure what plastic does to UV. I am sure it does have some filtering capabilities. But I would wrap some form of opaque material like electrical tape just as a safety measure.