India’s first and unique laboratory for photobiological testing of lamps and luminaires (especially LED systems) is installed and commissioned at ERED, CPRI, Bengaluru. This is a state of the art and unique facility in India for the assessment of the Photobiological safety of luminaires and lamp systems (especially LED systems) with the IDR300-PSL system according to various international and national standards viz. IEC/EN 62471, IS 16108, IEC /EN 60598-1, IEC TR 62778 & IEC 62471-5.

Due the lack of the general awareness of the fact that optical radiation emitted by the sources (except possible ocular and skin hazard due to ultraviolet radiation) may also pose a risk to the retina (human eye) by visible radiation, especially within the range of the “blue light,” and to the retina, cornea and lens by infrared radiation. With the increasing adoption of LEDs as a replacement of existing conventional light sources, the question arises whether the use of new generation light sources like LEDs are safe and in particular whether the emitted optical radiation poses no health risk. Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Division of CPRI, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India has setup this facility to evaluate the photobiological hazards of various light sources.

The main objective of this “Photobiological test setup” is to evaluate the criteria of photobiological safety of lamps especially for new generation light sources like LEDs that are designed for generation of optical radiation in the wavelength range 200 nm to 3000 nm. The light sources will be tested to determine the risk groups and their time of safe exposure in terms of their photobiological hazards into 4 types viz. Exempt, Risk Group 1 (Low risk), Risk Group 2 (Moderate risk) and Risk Group 3 (High risk).

The main photobiological hazards which are posed by light sources on the human eye and skin are Ocular and skin Actinic UV hazard in the range 200 nm to 400 m, UV-Component A hazard (ocular near UV radiation) in the range 315 nm to 400 nm, Retinal Blue light hazard in the range 300 nm to 700 nm, Retinal thermal hazard in the range 380 nm to 1400 nm  and infrared thermal radiation hazard in the range 780 nm to 3000 nm.