Press Release
Going Green increases blue light threat to children’s vision?
Government-mandated legislation will increase fluorescent lighting and save energy – but it could threaten the eyesight of children; San Antonio-based Company proposes using the body’s own defense to filter the light.
In an effort to conserve energy, the US government has passed legislation that will result in an increase in the presence of fluorescent lighting – along with the extra blue light these compact bulbs notoriously emit. “This
trend makes an already bad situation worse,†says Dr. Jim Gallas, CEO of San Antonio-based Photoprotective Technologies. “Blue light increases the risks of macular degeneration and children are at particular risk because the lens of their eyes does not yet have the yellow-brown tint that accumulates with age.†Gallas received a patent recently for incorporating ocular lens pigment – or OLP – into protective eye wear and believes children can especially benefit from his new invention – particularly in a changing environment that favors more and more blue light. “It’s not just the increase in fluorescent lighting that we have to deal with,†adds physicist Gallas; “the parallel trend in the industry to replace fluorescent bulbs with white LED lights will soon make things even worse: they emit still more blue light; they are brighter and their nature is such that they can be used almost anywhere.â€
Dr. Gallas’ new invention has been recently recognized in the optical industry where the blue component of sunlight is widely considered to be a factor in the dreaded disease of the retina – macular degeneration.
“The ocular lens of a young child is crystal clear. Unknown to most people, this lens will become yellow, then yellow- brown with age. Still less known, this yellow-brown tint acts as a filter for high energy visible, blue and violet light that would otherwise allow further photo-oxidative degradation of the retina that leads to macular degeneration,†says Gallas.
OLP-based lenses in sunglasses could protect the eyes of children from damage due to exposure to sunlight, computers, fluorescent and LED lighting during the period in which the juvenile ocular lens has relatively little OLP, in other words, by giving the children the protection they will ultimately get – but before getting the damage.
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Contact: Andy Lambert
Photoprotective
Technologies
6610 Topper Ridge * San Antonio, Texas 78233
(210) 493-6353 * fax (210) 493-7043 email: [email protected]
