Experts Warn of Blue Light Exposure as Students and Employees Learn and Work From Home

(KNSI) — With some Minnesota schools in distance learning and parents working from home, health experts say they are concerned about the long-term effects of all that screen time.

United Healthcare Chief Eye Care Officer Scott Edmonds says blue light, a low-wavelength, high-energy light emitted from computer screens and mobile devices that can boost a person’s alertness, is just about everywhere.

“The big exposure that we see today, especially with the pandemic, is coming of out your phone, coming out of your computer, and coming out of the newer televisions that emit a lot of that blue light.”

Long-term, blue light exposure can damage cells in the retina and disrupt sleep patterns. Experts warn it could also disrupt mental health and lead to a sedentary lifestyle.

Communications Professor Aaron Boyson at the University of Minnesota-Duluth says that limiting access is a way to combat technology overload outside of learning and working hours.

“If that means that at the dinner table you don’t have phones, don’t have phones. If that means not having screens in a kid’s room, take them out.”

He says even though constant use of technology has been normalized these days, parents shouldn’t feel constrained from limiting access and cutting down on use. He adds a body of research indicates even before the pandemic, adults, and kids were logging too much screen time.

Edmonds says to keep screens at least 30 inches away from your face. If that’s not possible, he says to use light filtering screen settings or blue light filtering glasses. Another recommendation is the 20-20-20 rule. After 20 minutes in front of a screen, look at something that’s 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
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MNC Reporter Mike Moen contributed to this report.

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