Measuring Eye Flash From Arc Welding

In our shipyards today we are employing over 100,000 welders. These workers and their neighbors have a certain amount of exposure to ultraviolet radiation, although every effort is made to supply and use suitable eye shields, goggles and screens. About 40 per cent of the calls at our shipyard dispensaries are because the patient has received what he thinks may be an "eye flash."1 Our purpose in the present study was to derive a practical rule whereby one can estimate in terms of time, intensity of radiation and distance the safeness of any exposure to a welding arc. Verhoeff and Bell2showed that the ultraviolet radiations responsible for ocular lesions in rabbits were shorter than 305 millimicrons and that about 2 × 106erg seconds per square centimeter were required for a minimal effect. They also showed that the biologic response varied with the duration of the