Can flash light cause infant blindness?

Recently, the flash story can blind babies who suddenly return on social networking sites. People warned each other about a case of a 3-month-old boy in China diagnosed with one-eyed blindness, after his parents photographed him but forgot to turn off the flash at a distance of about 25cm.

The story appeared in an article last year, writing that when the couple took the baby to the hospital, "the injury was diagnosed permanently and doctors said surgery could not help either. The cells are damaged by the boy's macula - an important part of the eye, where light is concentrated. The damage here can lead to loss of vision. "

Commenting on this information, Dr. Le Phuoc Huy, deputy director of HITEC Eye Hospital, said that if he reported that he was real, there was a high possibility that the boy had suffered eye damage before and not the flash was the cause. makes you blind.

A Chinese boy was blinded after taking a photo with the flash, was that the cause?

Dr. Huy affirmed that there are 3 light sources that can cause burns and total point of eye injury, leading to amblyopia or complete loss of vision: light from laser equipment, direct sunlight, continuous from the sun or during the solar eclipse.

"In addition to the above three cases, the light emitted from electronic devices in everyday life is within a safe range, it is unlikely to cause damage to the royal spot . I do not exclude some lighted devices. High intensity will have certain effects because in theory, this can happen, but the literature has not recorded any such case, " said Dr. Huy.

He also confirmed that the nature of flash cannot cause burns . Although the infant's retina is incomplete, the intensity of the light from the flash is not really high, and even for a brief moment, it cannot cause such a serious injury.

The flash is really not so bright as you think.

The truth is that scientific studies show that exposure to the camera's flash light, even from the newborn stage, cannot cause any permanent damage to the eye. The camera's flash is not really as bright as you think. It just became "too bright" because the surroundings were too dark.

As Dr. Huy said, the light you have to worry about will affect the eyes of babies as direct and continuous light from the sun. So, if you want to know the correlation, try bringing a flash between morning and experiment. You will immediately notice that the light from the flash is too faint and diffused that it no longer works.

Moreover, when having light with great intensity, the eyes also have mechanisms to protect it. For example, the eyelid will have a narrowing or closing reaction, and the eyelid closes slightly. The iris will regulate the pupil to shrink, receive enough light. Conversely, in the case of low light intensity, the pupil will open large to receive more light.

Laser lights are what parents need to be alert.

Now that you know the flash light diffuses and doesn't really light, it can harm children. But on the opposite side, let's talk about a truly dangerous artificial light source because they are almost very diffuse. Those are laser lights. Laser lights create a highly concentrated light source and it can cause burns.

However, even experts say that you don't need to be too strict with older kids playing laser lights in the house. If they play consciously and do not deliberately direct lasers directly into the eyes of others, laser light sweeping by chance in a very short time can still be safe.

Laser lights can leave damage on the macula.

However, according to Dr. Huy, to be safe, it is best to limit the use of light devices that directly affect children 's eyes , especially babies. Research shows that although the flash cannot cause blindness, it seems to be associated with a milder condition than the red-eye effect .

In addition, children should not be exposed to electronic devices with screens such as computers and phones too early."This causes eye strain and other refractive errors, most commonly myopia, " said Dr. Huy. "We recommend that parents should not expose their children to electronic devices early and less than 30 minutes a day, while increasing physical activity."

Regarding eye health care for children, Dr. Huy recommends that parents should pay attention to eye hygiene for children often and watch for abnormalities of the eye such as less flexibility, strabismus, problematic pupils. If a strange sign appears, parents should take the child to a medical examination soon.