Blue light from your smartphone screen can cause permanent blindness: Study

The blue light from our smartphones, laptops, and other digital screens could be far more dangerous that previously thought, and might even lead to permanent blindness in some cases.

Blue light, Blue light blindness, Blue light causes blindness, Smartphone screen, Smartphone blindness, Smartphone screen blindness

Blue Light from smartphones, laptops, etc can cause permanent damage to our vision, including blindness, says a new study. (Representational Image: Reuters)

The blue light from our smartphones, laptops, and other digital screens could be far more dangerous that previously thought, and might even lead to permanent blindness in some cases. This was revealed in a new study by researchers from the University of Toldeo published in the journal Scientific Reports, which highlights that blue light from our screen is actually much worse, especially for our eyes.

According to a report from Fast Company, the study shows that the blue light is causing molecules in our eyes to become toxic. The photoreceptor cells in the retina are killed off after steady exposure to the blue light, and these are not regenerated, even when the blue light exposure is terminated. The study shows that enough exposure to the light could cause permanent blindness.

“We are being exposed to blue light continuously, and the eye’s cornea and lens cannot block or reflect it…It’s no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye’s retina. Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop,” Dr Ajith Karunarathne, assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said in an official statement around the study.

“The retinal-generated toxicity by blue light is universal. It can kill any cell type,” he added.

The study also highlights that constant exposure to blue light leads to macular degeneration, which is an eye disease that can cause blindness the 50s or 60s. There’s no cure for this eye disease.

According to the study, blue light exposure causes the retina to produce “poisonous chemical molecules”, which cause irreversible damage to the photoreceptor cells. Photoreceptors are what allow humans to see the various range of light from the sun to rainbow colours. And once they are dead, they do not regenerate, which is what makes this study so alarming.

Previously reports have shown that the blue light from laptops can tamper with the production of melatonin in our bodies and thus disturb our sleeping patterns, cycles. That’s also the reason why many smartphone manufacturers introduce a night mode on the display, where the screen turns yellow, reducing the amount of blue light.

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The yellow-toned screen often comes into place in night mode or post sunset on many phones. This is supposed to ensure less strain on the eyes when a user is still watching content on their screen at night.

However as the latest study shows, the effects of blue light are much worse than simply disrupting sleep.

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