I have several times heard it said that electronic flash may damage the eyes of young babies. The reason is supposedly that their eyes are much more sensitive then adults.

I have also heard several people say that this is rubbish.

Does anybody have any pointers to (independendt/scientific) studies or comments, or perhaps comments from the camera or flash manufacturers? I have not been able to find anything but hearsay.

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), February 05, 2000

Answers

I just ran a search on PubMed (database of most of the currently published medical literature) and found no studies on flash photography and retinal damage. I did find, however that several studies actually use flashes (one article describes and off-camera flash) to study retinal characteristics. I do not know whether or not these flashes are of the same power as a typical SLR flash, but it you might say it's some evidence that flash photography is NOT damaging to the infant retina. I also found nothing on the American Academy of Pediatrics website. In summary...I think it's rubbish.

-- Tom Hammond (thhammond@hotmail.com), February 05, 2000.

The issue here is that babies' pigment in the iris is not yet fully developed. This makes them sensitive to all types of light, not just flash. Flash presents a problem because of the intensity of the light and its short duration (baby's eye can't 'stop down' fast enough). I'll try to find a link to the medsite db article this info came from.

-- Sean Noonan (stnoonan@yahoo.com), February 05, 2000.

baby's eye can't 'stop down' fast enough

Hm, I'd be surprised if anybody's eye can react to a flash: the light from a flash typically lasts (much) less than 1/1000 second.

But I'd be very interested in any material you can dig up from the database. Keep us posted...

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), February 05, 2000.

There may be a difference between 'causing damage' and 'causing distress'. A flash in my face, at normal power, gives me physical pain. This is worse when my eyes are adjusted for dim lighting, and may be associated with my tendancy to get migraines.

-- Alan Gibson (Alan@snibgo.com), February 07, 2000.