OTHER FACTOR TO CONSIDER
The great outdoors poses as many issues as electronic devices. UV light is not delivered consistently during the day or the year. A person's location on the planet, time of day, lifestyle and season can determine how much UV radiation he or she is receiving. For example, in the summer, the highest rate of UV exposure is between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. However, in the winter, that time shifts to between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Thus, if someone spends a lot of time outdoors and isn't wearing sunglasses, he or she is absorbing a lot of that UV light.
Beyond digital devices, modern lighting, including compact fluorescent lamps, emit a high level of harmful blue light. The trend toward cooler fluorescent lights is particularly troubling. By 2020, 90 percent of indoor lighting sources are going to be LED lighting. That means the exposure levels to blue light will be increasing, raising the risk of eye problems.
For the aging population of the United States, that’s bad news. There are already 24 million cases of cataracts in people over age 40 in the United States as of 2012. That’s a 19 percent increase since the year 2000 for the group. As for macular degeneration, two million people over age 50 had late stage cases of the eye disease in 2012, a 25 percent increase from 2000.
Using that growth as a trend, experts predict that the number of adults with cataract problems in the U.S. will reach 50 million by 2050, with macular degeneration hitting a whopping 5 million.
While it seems like escaping harmful blue light is becoming increasingly impossible, what with its proliferation in the home and office environments and the necessity of using computers, mobile phones, tablets and other devices for work and pleasure, there is some good news. Companies are aware of the risks of blue light pollution and are working on ways to block the unhealthy levels of harmful blue light while allowing some healthy levels to remain. But until they do, it’s advisable to try and limit exposure as much as possible.