Blue Light Is As Bad As UV Rays

It causes the same harm to your skin. Yet, conventional sunscreen and skincare may not protect you enough. This is what you can do.

You already know all about UV rays. How they penetrate the skin, causing hyperpigmentation and wrinkles. How they burn the skin. And how they may play a pivotal role in skin cancer.

What’s less well known is that blue light, too, is bad for skin. While UV rays are invisible, blue light is on the visible spectrum (the range of wavelengths of light that let us see colour).

It is both insidious and inevitable, because it is outdoors and indoors, coming from the sun, our smartphone screens, our TV sets and other electronic devices, and even fluorescent lighting.

Should you worry about it? Yes and no.

The amount of blue light emitted by devices is only a fraction of damaging rays emitted by the sun, says Dr Nisha Suyien Chandran, head and consultant of the division of dermatology at the National University Hospital. “There is no convincing evidence that blue light is more damaging to the skin than UV rays.”