TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - Our cell phones are practically connected to us. Now, scientists at the University of Toledo say the blue light that comes from electronics is doing permanent damage to our vision.
A dark room at the University of Toledo is where researchers have found blue light, specifically, leads to macular degeneration.
"Macular Degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States and all around the world," said assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ajith Karunarathne.
That's right.
According to this new research, blue light can makes us blind.
The researchers said molecules that we need to be able to see, called retinal, turn into cell killers when they interact with blue light.
"We don't really at this point know what is the major cause. We know how it happened because there are multiple paths that lead to the cell death," said Karunarathne.
The researchers want to get to the bottom of that and develop some sort of eye d rop to reduce damage. In the meantime, they suggest avoiding looking at your phone in the dark.
"It's definitely eye-opening, in a pun sense. Wow, seeing that new research is definitely going to make me consider a lot on how much time I spend on my phone and looking at the screen," said UT student, Jordan Guyton.
