When you’re in the grow room setting for any length of time and you’re bathed in the rays coming from high pressure sodium lights, it’s so important to keep your eyes protected. This is achieved through the use of good quality HPS glasses that provide a barrier against the largely red and yellow parts of the light spectrum that they produce.
HPS lights do also emit lower quantities of UV and blue light than other varieties of light products, but they can still end up damaging your eyes.
When trying to focus in this restricted light spectrum, you’ll typically find it difficult, which in turn makes it tricky to detect any kind of movement. This means that you’re likely to miss any of those tiny critters that like to make home on your plants.
Another issue that this narrow light range presents is a golden glow that’s cast on the plants they’re covering, which causes problems in spotting any discoloration that results from any nutrient deficiency or disease. HPS glasses specifically meant for use in this environment not only protect your eyes, but also allow you to see clearly when you need to.
What Happens to Your Eyes When You Don’t Wear Protection?
The official line from the American Optometric Association is that UV light causes a wide range of harm to the eyes, with some being short term and others having more long-term issues.
When exposed to UV light for short periods without HPS glasses, it can lead to a particular type of eye sunburn that’s known scientifically as photokeratitis. The indications that this has happened to you will be issues like feeling like you have grit in your eye, excessive tearing, redness and overall pain.
The long-term implications of exposure include serious problems like macular degeneration. This happens because of a degradation of the retina, causing those with the problem to have difficulty seeing directly ahead.
Cataracts are another issue related to unprotected exposure to UV light, which results in the eye’s lens becoming foggy. It can lead to almost total blindness, although having them removed is a relatively simple and easy procedure in the Western world.
Outside of the grow room, these issues are usually only found in older people, but the landscape is changed somewhat when younger people are exposed in this way. You can avoid all of this by wearing a quality pair of HPS glasses.
Be Safe & Stay Protected in the Growing Environment
What all of this means is that when you’re in the specialist space that is the growing room, wearing protection is a bit of a no-brainer, as what price do you put on the health of your eyes?
The relatively small investment that you make buying a pair of glasses that protects you pails into insignificance when you start talking about the cost of treatment for the eye issues we’ve mentioned during this blog.
This is before we even start talking about the fact that the right glasses provide you with the clarity of vision in this intense environment that allows you to properly look after your plants right.
Just remember to take the right, sensible precautions before working in this kind of area and you’ll have no problems, as you really do owe it to your eyes and your vision to wear the right gear in this unique type of location.
