Blue Light Filtering Glasses

Sliced Bread

BBC

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 695 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

According to some businesses, the laptop, phone and TV screens we use every day are causing us big problems.

They claim these devices emit concentrations of "harmful blue light" which leaves us with tired eyes and poor sleep. One firm goes even further by suggesting this may contribute to a worrying long term condition, macular degeneration which leaves you with a permanent black hole in the centre of your vision.

Their solution? A pair of trendy looking spectacles which claim to filter out this blue light.

Listener, Sophie spends roughly 12 hours a day at a screen of some sort. She bought a pair but isn't sure if they work. So she's asked Greg to look into them and find out.

We get answers from two leading lights in the science of our eyes. Professor John O'Hagan has been a public health scientist for 46 years and is Visiting Professor in Laser and Optical Radiation Safety at Loughborough University.

Greg also meets sleep expert Russell Foster, professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford who's been researching body clocks for 38 years.

We put the evidence directly to Dhruvin Patel. He's the boss of one of the largest blue light filtering brands, Ocushield which turned over £2m last year.

How does he respond? And will Sophie keep using her trendy specs?

This series, we’re testing your suggested wonder-products. Seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there's any evidence to back up the claim? Tell us! Drop us an line to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk .

Presenter: Greg Foot Producer: Julian Paszkiewicz

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, podcast fan.
0:03.0	Consider this your invite to the UK's biggest podcasting party.
0:06.7	We're heading to Sheffield from the 4th to the 6th of July
0:09.0	for the BBC Sounds Fringe at the Crossed Wires Festival.
0:12.8	We'll be joined by some of the biggest names in podcasting,
0:15.3	including Sarah Cox, Charlie Hedges, Russell Kane,
0:18.4	and some bloke called Greg James doing his radio four show called Rewinder.
0:23.2	You can watch live shows of your favourite podcasts,
0:25.3	and the best part is free.
0:28.0	To book your free tickets,
0:29.3	go to crossedwires.orgive, forward slash fringe.
0:34.2	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.
0:44.1	Hello, I'm Greg Foote and welcome to the show that investigates the bold claims being made by your suggested wonder products.
0:52.1	I am here to find out if there are any facts behind the
0:55.0	fads or whether the ads are simply marketing BS. If you have spotted an advert or seen a
1:01.5	trend that you'd like me to look into, please send it over to us on email using sliced.bred
1:06.8	at bbc.co.uk. This week's suggestion comes from Sophie Temeschi in Manchester. Hi Sophie. How are you doing?
1:17.1	Hi. I'm good. Thank you. How are you? Not bad at all. Not bad at all. What do you want us to look
1:21.7	into? I want you to look at if blue light glasses are worth it, if they work, if there's any benefits as to, you know,
1:29.4	when wearing them. Have you got your pair there? There they are. Okay. Oh, they're like a fancy
1:34.6	tortoiseshell rimmed design. They are. They're very fancy, yeah. I mean, they're kind of cool, to
1:39.1	be honest. I feel kind of cool when I wear them. Is that knowing that they are blue light filtering or just because you think they look pretty cool? I just think they look cool. So what's the world look like when you put them on?
	...

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