After having grown vertical for years now and many years of flat before that, I now need glasses and my vision has been ruined.

As vertical growers, you especially are vulnerable to eye damage. I highly suggest turning your HID's off when working in your room/s. If you can't be bothered by that, then get at least 2 pairs of really good sunglasses that can overlap each other.

Metal halides put off UV but HPS don't. If running MH vertically, this will degrade your eyes rapidly. You must wear UV protected sunglasses if working in your room/s with the lights on.

Please listen and learn from my mistakes.

Edit:

Since the creation of this thread, many people have shared their knowledge and experience. A lot of us have purchased Shade 5 welding goggles and it has helped drastically. I still recommend turning your lights off if you need to do some work, but again, if you can't be bothered, goto amazon.com and type in shade 5 (or IR 5) welding goggles. I got the fancy "fly" ones, so it was $13.00 with super saver shipping, but they have a pair that is $7.00.

People spend way more then $7.00 on any other aspect of their grow, invest in yourself.

Good call! I've noticed everytime i leave my tent i cant see right for a good 15mins in normal light. I'm gonna start using sunglasses to visit the girls from now on. Thank you for the advice.

i bet even enough cfl's together would do the same damage. good call OP. its so hard to remember sunglasses every time, so i keep a pair in the entrance just for that purpose. i still sometimes don;t put em on haha.

Yes, you could probably blind yourself with cfl's... but it would be funny. You goto the doctor and he asks, why do you think your vision has degraded so rapidly? You answer, cause I grow weed with 2000w of CFL's.

I bet he would just laugh at you.

Ya its hard to remember... I know, I tried for a long time, now my vision is so screwed up that I can't afford anymore. I don't wanna be blind by the time I'm... well age doesn't really matter... I don't wanna be blind!

Good info! Stickey?

welding goggles

the lazing factor is one of the reasons I switched back to horizontal.....

peace
jip

shade 3.0-5.0 welding glasses should work. $20, but you won't see the color of the plant well with dark green tinted glasses. i think shade 10 would be near impossible to see the plant.

it takes about 15mins for the eyes to adjust to large light changes, but you are probably doing damage without knowing it. i'm sure i have... in my case welding hasn't helped any.

Good thread, safety concerns are to be treated as very important.

Sticky this guys!!!

i got up to 33 minutes of straight sungazing but its during safe times, im sorry to hear about your eyes and appriciate the heads up.. i hope your eyes heal themselves-