Oh my. I Never thought I'd be making a video about this subject so soon. but another huge incident has occurred where a lot of people have been exposed to germicidal light and it's caused temporary eye damage. So the first time I featured this not that long ago was an event in Hong Kong Run by a fashion label called Hyp Beast and uh, they had a party where they used germicidal tubes because they didn't realize the harm associated with them as decoration and it caused people eye damage.

The exact same thing has happened in Hong Kong again with an event run by the Board Ape Yacht Club called Ape Fest and once again they've used UVC tubes as I'll show you in the pictures cuz I think I've deduced what caused it. Uh, and it's caused people temporary eye damage again. So let me show you why this occurs. I'm going to turn this tube on I'm going to Shield myself from it.

you're not exposed to UVC because the camera can't pick it up and your monitor or tablet or phone cannot display on its display. so you'll see that this produces a lovely cyan glow. It's in the dark, it's fantastic, but you cannot look at it because this uh, glow you're seeing is only the visible spectrum from mercury vapor. The strongest wavelength coming out of this tube right now is UVC actually in several wave Amp 184, NM and 254 nanm I Can smell ozone off this tube right now, but notice the clear glass tube that's important and the little dark bits at the end because that is important later on I'm turning this off now.

Oh, also notice that you may occasionally see a pattern running backwards forwards along the tube. Uh, that is caused by the electronic ballast and standing waves within the gas discharge. Have I gone too technical yet? Yes. Anyway, a standard fluorescent tube has the mercury vapor inside.

mercury vapor produces a UVA wavelength I think that's UVA there but also produces down here lots of a strong UVC wavelengths and they're normally converted into visible light by phosphorus. They also emits three or more lines very low level in the visible spectrum blue, green, and orange and that's what gives that lovely turquoisey glow. But they are what you'd call minor wavelengths compared to the really serious wavelength which is the UVC The UVC is converted to visible light. In this case, it's actually converted to not just visible light but UV a cuz this is a insect zapper tube and in the case of this one, it's exact the same phosphor that one uses, but this is called Black light blue and it's got blue glass that filters out only the desired wavelength which was the correct tube to use in the application.

not this one. This was the correct tube to use. You could even have used this one, but not this one. But let's take a look and see if we can work out where this occurred.

So for this, I'm going to bring in some pictures that I've found showing the event by people who attended. It looks like it was a fairly decent event. So here's the main stage and the first thing immediately Springs to mind is that blue there? but I'm looking at it and there's a LED sign in the middle I think that's LED strip LED does not produce UVC wavelengths H You can get UVC LEDs but they're very rare and they most certainly don't use them in huge quantities for decorative lighting these could be. They've gone for a very Ultra valet look, but these are all LED lights.

The only other thing that comes to mind will let me grab one. just give me a second. a big thatat uh, 400 watt uh mercury vapor discharge tube. Now, these tubes actually contain a quartz envelope inside like the UVC one and they produce a lot of UVC but it's normally blocked by the outer glass which is Woods glass.

In this case, it's a filter or a variant thereof that only lets the sort of UVA wav lengths through. But um, if the outer sleeves of these get broken, those ones can cause significant eye damage and that has happened in the past events. Where The mercury vapor lamps have been broken but still continue to run inside putting that wavelength out. I Do not see lights in this image that resemble that I'm just going to put this light away one moment.

Those big UV lamps. They're very inefficient. They don't use phosphor like these ones do. They don't put out anywhere near as much as a decent array of fluorescent tubes, but these days for Ultra, they tend to use LEDs And they they're operating the near ultraviolet region.

Or in this case, it looks more like they're just mixing red and blue to give a vality effect. Um, certainly all the lights that are visible here don't look a hazard. But let's take a closer look at the DJ plint. which.

uh, if we zoom in a bit. Very stylish setup. Uh, we shall. Zoom a little bit closer.

It does have tubes in the front initially. I Thought could they be ultraviolet tubes? but if you take an even closer look, computer, enhance the image. Oh, before I go there. Uh.

Also, these lights here. Uh, these are all LED fixtures. very narrow beams. um, or in the case, these sort of semi focusable wash lights.

They're all LED. They're not going to be the culprits here. and even these lights at the bottom here. they're most likely LED again and not putting out UVC So that rules them out.

But let's take a closer look at these tubes. and if we do zooming in that image, we see the tubes and they look like LED tubes to me because they've got the little end cap with the cable coming out at one end. and if I show you one of these, this tube has been turned around. that's a bit naughty that someone did that because there's a stripe in this.

Someone has just played about with that after that's been installed because nobody would leave it like that normally. But um, if you take a look at these tubes, there can you see that slight faint line here. These have an LED strip inside. Uh, there's the cable green at the end and the cap and the other just like these ones.

but the LED is at the back of the tube and you rotate it to match the angle that's going to be pointing. but this shows up as a dark line. It's just the best way to get the diffused output from the front. You normally rotate these tubes so that line is at the back and IT projects light out the front.

That line there is most like the LED. You do get florescent tubes with a conductive line across them, but kind of rare these days and I think these are just LED tubes so that's them ruled out as well. So then then we look for other pictures of the venue and we find a interesting in Ly themed toilet area. Let me, uh, zoom out.

So these are this is the area you're supposed to go I Guess this isn't the actual toilets. There wouldn't be much privacy if you were supposed to poo in public I Think they' could be very annoyed if you actually uh did appear one of these toilets I think they're just decorative, but they've got this. Ultra Valet themi again and look at these tubes up here. H that's interesting, Computer enhance the image.

Let's take a closer look at those tubes. Let's get right up close to them and they look to me like fluorescent fittings and those look like clear glass tubes with that little Gap at the end of the gas discharge that I showed you and also notice the beating along here which suggests the tube is clear and that is the standing wave in the mercury vapor I reckon and I can't guarantee it's not 100% guaranteed for a point the finger of blame at people. but uh I reckon that these are in fact UVC tubes. Um, because everything tallies up with that.

the little uh Tombstone connectors at the end for fluorescent tubes, that dark patch cuz with with phosphor, you generally get a glow at the end. it might be darker, but you wouldn't get that really dark void and also that jelly beaning effect that happens with electronic supplies for discharge tubes. So I reckon that here's the real culprit. It's the toilet area and any other area the use those tubes and it's so odd that you know they had that event uh Hy Beast in Hong Kong And it's so odd that another event these have turned up.

It makes me wonder if while they were installing it people said oh, they used these tubes and they were great and they didn't know what had actually happened and they said why not use these or maybe the same Ha company just had some of these tubes from the previous event and just put them back out again and well the same thing has happened again. So if you get photoc keratosis of your eye which is what happens also called welder's eye or arc flash uh here's what happens. You wake up the middle of the night and it feels like someone's throwing sand in your eyes. Uh, if you've been really exposed to those tubes you may also have minor of sunburn effect of skin irritation.

but it's worth mentioning. UVC is one of the shortest wavelengths of ultraviolet. It cannot penetrate deep into the skin and that also for the same for your eye. It just affects the surface of the eye and it effectively just basically damages it at a slightly molecular level in the surface and it will cause intense discomfort.

But in most instances all all the ones I've come across it passes itself. I have had it from playing about with ultraviolet lights no less. H and I didn't get it too badly, but I woke up middle of the night and had that sensation I Didn't get it too badly, but it does pass with time. now.

a Welder's tip and I can't give medical advice in this channel. Um, a Welder tip from the previous video and a lot of welders said this is that if you suffer arc flash from being exposed to a reflection or a coworker or your own work that you didn't cover your eyes properly H Take a potato, slice a potato in half or chop it up and get the juice off the potato with the starch and drip it into your eyes. I Can't give that as official medical advice for obvious reasons, but many welders tallied up and said, yep, absolutely we we do that and it provides instant relief, but you you can also get pain reducing drops from your doctor if that ever happens. But the main thing to know is that it feels terrible when you experience it.

It's almost certain that your eyes are going to recover within a day or two, and um, there will be no lasting damage, so that's worth knowing. But if you ever go to an event and you see decorative, light, decorative lighting that involves these clear fluorescent tubes with that very pleasing blue glow, oh, it's so alluring I'm not looking at it again. Oh, you can't be exposed to this by the phone I think I mentioned that earlier on it. The phone can't uh, the camera can't record actual UVC and your display can't show it.

but uh I can understand why people use these tubes without knowing. But if you ever go to an event, you see these tubes in full public View And this doesn't apply to NE Ins signs, just the fluorescent tubes then just be cautious. it might be worth actually leaving that area.