My cousin almost blinded himself looking directly at a solar eclipse once.
- My aunt and uncle warned him, but he didn’t listen.
Thankfully for my cousin, he was only looking for about 10 seconds before his parents told him to stop. But it didn’t stop him from seeing a big bright white light for the next 48 hours. I remember it being a big deal that weekend, but thankfully my cousin’s eyes eventually recovered and he never made that sort of mistake again. People who do welding have to be careful for the same reason because the light gets so bright that it can burn their corneas. If you aren’t wearing the right kind of eye protection while welding, you could blind yourself. UV-C bulbs in air conditioners and air purifiers are similar in terms of their danger level. They might seem like harmless light bulbs upon first glance, but they’re blinding even if they don’t seem nearly as bright as hordes of perfectly safe lights. But if you stare directly at a UV-C bulb for long enough without eye protection, you could just as easily blind yourself as you would staring at the sun for a shorter period of time. These lights are no joke and it’s important to protect your eyes, even if you don’t think it’s important. You can’t get your eyes back if you inadvertently blind yourself. It gives me severe anxiety just thinking about the risk and how I would feel if something like that happened to me, especially if I knew there was something I could have done to prevent it in the beginning.