Eli5: My bicycle light warns of radiation if you stare directly at the light. Why isn’t simply touching or being next to it an issue?
In: Physics
Probably not the case with your bike light, but certain kinds of light can do damage to your eyes without you realizing it.
For instance, monitoring equipment for volatile organics (called photoionization detectors-PIDs for short) use a UV lamp to help detect vapors. They come with a warning not to look into the meter at the light, because it can destroy/”burn” your retina.
P.S. And light (visible to us or not) is a form of “radiation” aka electromagnetic radiation.
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