Welding and safety on eyesight ?

[AVI_8]

When I first started to attempt to weld earlier in the year I made a mistake by accidentally pressing the grind mode button on my welding helmet, what followed can only described as a bright flash.
A few weeks later I noticed blurry vision on one eye, went to my optician and he diagnosed central serous retinopathy, basically a fluid build up at the back of the eye, my medical was suspended and I haven’t worked since mid June, I’ve often wondered if the flash from the welder had something to do with it.
It‘s a bit of a coincidence as my eyesight has always been good up until this happened.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

When I first started to attempt to weld earlier in the year I made a mistake by accidentally pressing the grind mode button on my welding helmet, what followed can only described as a bright flash.

I did something quite similar with my helmet....started welding with just the perspex grinding shield (welding shield flips up)....turned out 3m also has a UV shield on their perspex grind shield. I reckon if the mask is on then you'd have the UV protection....the bright flash isn't much fun though and I was in major panic for the whole evening.

Whether there was damage in your case from the bright flash (and not the UV) I wouldn't know.

 

[pint]

I did something quite similar with my helmet....started welding with just the perspex grinding shield (welding shield flips up)....turned out 3m also has a UV shield on their perspex grind shield. I reckon if the mask is on then you'd have the UV protection....the bright flash isn't much fun though and I was in major panic for the whole evening.

"Has permanent protection (Shade 12 equivalent) against harmful UV- and IR- radiation, regardless of whether the filter is in the light or dark state or whether the auto-darkening function is operational."

quoted from 3M speedglass welding helmet leaflet.

I went with a decent trusted brand for my welding helmet because i consider eyes to be important