Amazing product for heating, but dangerous?

[OlympusMons]

Hi everyone,

I came across this infrared heating eye mask a little while ago and yesterday it finally arrived. It turned out to be a wonderful piece of equipment for applying heat to one's eyelids. In contrast to bags of rice, wheat etc. it keeps hot for as long as you want to. Just having it on doesn't help much though, you have to use your hands to fixate the heating pads to your eyes. And depending on how much pressure you put on them against the eyelids, the warmer it gets (you never have to press hard though, it gets really hot anyway).

What concerns me is whether it's dangerous or not. It uses far infrared heating to produce the heat and it supposedly penetrates human tissue a few centimers. I obviously don't want cancer from radiation or harm my eyes in any other way...

[Jovver]

No danger of cancer from infrared; infrared radiation is just another word for the long wavelength thermal radiation emitted by objects. We all emit infrared radiation i.e. heat. It's the more energetic, shorter wavelengths that cause cellular disruption.

The only issue as far as I can see is if it is simply too hot. Although it looks to be an interesting product, I am not sure that I would want something at 50 degrees Centigrade right next to my eyes? I'm no expert but that does look pretty warm for such a sensitive area.

[OlympusMons]

I'm glad to hear that. Yes, it gets hot and you have to be careful. But if you just gently let it touch the eyelids it doesn't transmit that much heat I think.

[Rebecca Petris]

Definitely check with your doctor on that one. 50C=122F right? I suspect that's too hot for safety personally but I don't actually know for sure. I do know that if it ever feels HOT, it's too hot.

Another option for battery powered lid heating you might want to check out is Rhein Medical's device. it's expensive, but it's pretty neat. Shaped to go over the eyeball only, so could be very useful for those who have issues with heat on the skin around their eyes. I'm testing it out and will blog about it when I've used it longer.