Solid-state lighting and photobiological safety

Recent advancements in Light-Emitting Diode (LED) technology have led to significant proliferation of solid-state lighting in our every-day life. White light and monochrome LED-based solid-state sources provide a small size, lower power consumption, and longer life alternative to several types of traditional light sources, such as incandescent lights. However, the spectral characteristics of LEDs are significantly different from the spectra of self-luminous objects that human eyes are adapted to through evolution and, therefore, may pose a real threat of photic-induced eye injury. In this paper the spectral characteristics of individual sources are considered from a photobiological safety perspective, and are used to estimate the retinal hazard potential of LEDs relative to that for daylight and blackbody radiators. The presented LED source retinal hazard exposure ranking considerations could be accounted for during illumination system design to minimize photic-induced eye injury risk. The importance of the material presented herein can not be underestimated since high power LED sources are found in a variety of high volume lighting applications and systems including automotive lamps, signal lighting, flash lights and other illumination devices.