Stove safety - keeping your eyes safe

[DeadTreeBurner]

I wonder how many folks think about the long term effects of strong radiant and convection heat from our stoves that we're exposed to while tending to our stoves. Not only am I blasted from both types when the door is open, I'm also getting hot IR through the glass window in the door as I sit in front, waiting for temps to climb.

I've been using a pair of sunglasses to shield my eyes. I started with a pair of regular dark lenses, then bought a pair of mirrored polarized sunglasses that have an orangish mirrored tint. I assumed the mirrored type would be better at reflecting infrared heat, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's not, especially with the orange tint. They help, but not enough as I usually end up experiencing irritated eyes that feel gritty, or even burnt, for an hour or so afterwards. I'm not sure if they're just letting a lot of IR through, or if convection heat is the problem, flowing up under the lenses after toasting my face and cheeks which do get quite hot with just seconds of exposure from 2 to 3 feet from the front of the stove. I did notice more eye comfort if I shield the middle part of my face and cover the bottom of my sunglasses with my hand as I jockey wood in the stove with the other hand. I also tried a tinted full face shield from amazon that blocked IR, but I quit using that b/c it smelled unpleasant as it heated up.

What are your experiences, what are you all doing to protect your eyes?

 

[stoveliker]

Reload when the stove is less hot?
And there is no need to sit in front of it waiting for temps to climb. I mean, I enjoy being heated to my bones (having come up to NY from TN...), but I could move away to a chair about off to the side...

 

[gthomas785]

IR is not really that dangerous. It does not penetrate through your eyeballs or any other tissue for that matter it just heats the surface. If it is too intense you will feel the burning and blink or move away.

Source: am physicist

 

[stoveliker]

It is likely just drying out the eye. (Which may be a bit dry already due to the dry climate in a wood-heated home in winter...)

 

[bholler]

I never gave it a thought

 

[DeadTreeBurner]

Reload when the stove is less hot?
And there is no need to sit in front of it waiting for temps to climb. I mean, I enjoy being heated to my bones (having come up to NY from TN...), but I could move away to a chair about off to the side...

My stove throws significant heat w/ door open unless there's hardly any coals left. Doesn't get that low often during colder months.
Yeah, I don't need to sit so close, but right now my basement is still a mess with boxes, etc. from our move in so I don't have a great place to sit. I usually just stay on the little stool and turn my back while I'm waiting.

 

[begreen]

I am more concerned about a crazy random ember pop hitting me in the eye. That could have serious consequences. I always wear glasses so that helps, but I did ruin a pair of transition lenses due to the intense IR heat from the stove. The heat changed it to a sort of bronzish permanent tint. That was back in the day when I was doing a lot more fire observation and reporting for this place.

 

[DeadTreeBurner]

IR is not really that dangerous. It does not penetrate through your eyeballs or any other tissue for that matter it just heats the surface. If it is too intense you will feel the burning and blink or move away.

Source: am physicist

I'm not concerned about interior of the eye, but rather chronic heating of the cornea. IR and convection both heats objects, so...
I've searched briefly looking for info on IR and the effect of heat on the eye, and I did come across some stuff that indicates some research shows that it could contribute to glaucoma. Makes sense. The skin on my face almost feels like it's beginning to bake at times (with sunglasses on), I doubt that kind of heating is good for the cornea.
I do my best to minimize exposure, but I usually end up with eye irritation.

 

[DeadTreeBurner]

I am more concerned about a crazy random ember pop hitting me in the eye. That could have serious consequences. I always wear glasses so that helps, but I did ruin a pair of transition lenses due to the intense IR heat from the stove. The heat changed it to a sort of bronzish permanent tint. That was back in the day when I was doing a lot more fire observation and reporting for this place.

Yeah, popping embers aren't good. The plastic face shield I was using actually softened and took on more of the curve the mount on the head bracket had. It was originally flat and clipped into the curved bracket. It also started stinking much much more when exposed to the heat while tending to the fire - raking medium to low coals, etc.

 

[gthomas785]

In that case just wearing glasses (any kind- don't have to be sunglasses) would eliminate that risk.

 

[DeadTreeBurner]

In that case just wearing glasses (any kind- don't have to be sunglasses) would eliminate that risk.

Okay, yeah, I guess it's UV that can pass through glass or clear plastic, not IR.

 

[stoveliker]

Okay, yeah, I guess it's UV that can pass through glass or clear plastic, not IR.

No, glass blocks uv.

If visible light gets thru, IR will (mostly, there are exceptions with coatings and angles of incidence) too.

 

[stoveliker]

I am more concerned about a crazy random ember pop hitting me in the eye. That could have serious consequences. I always wear glasses so that helps, but I did ruin a pair of transition lenses due to the intense IR heat from the stove. The heat changed it to a sort of bronzish permanent tint. That was back in the day when I was doing a lot more fire observation and reporting for this place.

Regarding embers, if I open the stove when it is still too hot (bad planning for starting the overnight load...), sometimes I have these 10-20 or so tiny sparks appearing in the air, suddenly, as a group, both inside the firebox and outside (up to 2 ft away).

The do make some sound, but disappear within a second.

These are not embers flying out (and the stove is firmly in coaling stage, no flame before opening the door, but quite some blazing hot material inside).

Have any of you seen similar things?

I am thinking these are dust specks floating around that spontaneously combust when the heat radiates out of the stove upon opening the door.

Draft is good (are sucking in).

 

[begreen]

I get the sparkles with locust when stirred, but it is the unexpected pitch pockets in wood that can shoot a hot ember out a surprising distance.

 

[gthomas785]

No, glass blocks uv.

If visible light gets thru, IR will (mostly, there are exceptions with coatings and angles of incidence) too.

You're right I had a brain fart. Polycarbonate lenses will block some near infrared but most of it would pass through.

 

[Caw]

Yeah, science!

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I don’t have the scientific background to comment on the merits of concern with this. I will say though that I have trouble thinking this should be of concern. At least I hope it’s not, being that my favorite place in the house to hang out is about 7 feet from my wood insert.

 

[gthomas785]

People have stared at fires for millions of years. You know when you're too close or it's time to look away.

 

[stoveliker]

People have stared at fires for millions of years. You know when you're too close or it's time to look away.

My background is not in bio or medical. But I do tend to think that our bodies are quite adept at warning us before something goes wrong in a permanent way.

So if you sit and feel something uncomfortable, I'd change something.

However, our bodies are not good at *always* warning us when something is slowly going wrong (see smoking or eating habits ... goes well for years but the probability of things going wrong... etc).

Also, people have for 400,000 years (...) stared into fires, and may have started to develop eye problems, but just not lived long enough to have it have a large effect on them. I.e. glaucoma developing in 35 years when the life expectancy was 35 years...

So I'd say, we (okay, me) sit and stare into the fire because it calms and warms. Hence, if you feel physically uncomfortable or get stressed about sitting where you sit, it's not doing what it is supposed to do: relax.
(Hence my bourbon ... - but that leads to a whole nother story about health ;p )

 

[DeadTreeBurner]

No, glass blocks uv.

If visible light gets thru, IR will (mostly, there are exceptions with coatings and angles of incidence) too.

I think up to 50% UV-A passes through regular glass, but most of UV-B is blocked. As for IR, , near infrared passes through glass, but not lower frequency IR. Rather than link to information, anybody interested can do a quick search.

 

[stoveliker]

Stove glass is not regular glass, and "higher frequency" IR gets to be visible...

The cut off for neoceram runs right thru the UV range.

 

[David.Ervin]

Don't know about eye damage from reloading a fire, but my glasses took some damage from it. Reloading a on a really hot bed of hickory coals when I also had to shovel out some ash - I could feel how hot my face was getting, but got the job done. Then I discovered the anti-glare coating on the inside of my glasses was peeling around the edges. I'm thinking the metal frames heated up faster than the lenses themselves and delaminated that stuff of the lenses!

 

[DeadTreeBurner]

People have stared at fires for millions of years. You know when you're too close or it's time to look away.

There's no problem staring at a fire from the appropriate distance. As you stated "you know when you're too close or it's time to look away". I'm saying that within arm's reach of flames, coals and embers in a confined space is way too close. How hot can it be on average when adding fuel, raking chunks of coals, etc? 1000 plus? My IR temp gun measures well over 700 F when aimed on black spots that have accumulated on the glass. Often, I cannot hold the back of my hand within a foot from the opening for more than a few seconds, it's that hot.
I do whatever I can to avoid direct exposure to the heat thrown, but inevitably end up with irritated, gritty, burnt feeling eyes from the encounter. If there's a nice bed of coals I'm dealing with I can expect my cheeks to get very hot and a lot of times when adding wood, I have to wear heat resistant gloves. My stove has a smaller firebox with secondary air tubes lining the top and are mounted lower in the back so I can't just blindly lob logs into the stove and walk away in just a few seconds. I've also experienced this when burning brush and adding to the fire. If you're close enough to add fuel to a pile of brush that's burning decently, you will feel tremendous heat from within say 5 feet. Like I mentioned earlier, I've come across information that indicates chronic exposure to heat could contribute to glaucoma. This affects folks that are working close to any type of significant heat source without appropriate eye shielding.

 

[DeadTreeBurner]

Stove glass is not regular glass, and "higher frequency" IR gets to be visible...

The cut off for neoceram runs right thru the UV range.

Thanks for the correction. I can't see there being any problem enjoying a fire from the appropriate distance. It comes down to how much heat is reaching you and how much your corneas are being heated. Doesn't matter if it's from IR warming them or convection.
I think you're spot on when you mention people from ages past that worked around fire not living long enough to get bad glaucoma. Or link the two together since it would be a contributing factor over time and not necessarily obvious.

 

[Shrewboy]

My background is not in bio or medical. But I do tend to think that our bodies are quite adept at warning us before something goes wrong in a permanent way.

So if you sit and feel something uncomfortable, I'd change something.

However, our bodies are not good at *always* warning us when something is slowly going wrong (see smoking or eating habits ... goes well for years but the probability of things going wrong... etc).

Also, people have for 400,000 years (...) stared into fires, and may have started to develop eye problems, but just not lived long enough to have it have a large effect on them. I.e. glaucoma developing in 35 years when the life expectancy was 35 years...

So I'd say, we (okay, me) sit and stare into the fire because it calms and warms. Hence, if you feel physically uncomfortable or get stressed about sitting where you sit, it's not doing what it is supposed to do: relax.
(Hence my bourbon ... - but that leads to a whole nother story about health ;p )

Check out nitrogen rich environment hazards, that is one thing that your body has NO warning or defense against! Scary and interesting at the same time