BAYC Party Burns Attendees' Eyes With UV Light

Partygoers at the ApeFest event in Hong Kong over the weekend got more than they bargained for after a number of attendees suffered serious after-effects. The problems first surfaced in the early hours of the morning after the party, as users started complaining of eye pain and vision problems.

Yuga Labs, who hosted the event, quickly sought to figure out the cause of the issues.

The problems, which Yuga said affected around 15 partygoers, were eventually diagnosed as photokeratitis, which results from exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light—essentially, having sunburned eyes. The event had featured lasers and strobe lights, and it transpired that the wrong bulbs had likely been used. Since these lights do not emit much light in the visible part of the spectrum, those present could look at them without realizing anything was wrong, only later feeling the effects of harmful UV exposure.

One reddit user commented: "From the pictures in the X thread, it looks like they were using straight up bright ass UV-C lights as blacklights. That's amazingly dangerous and irresponsible. Proper blacklights don't emit the dangerous spectrum of UV."

Despite Yuga's update to the community, stating that only a few out of the 2,000+ community members who attended the event were affected, others suggested the problem had been more widespread. And, although in many cases the symptoms resolved without treatment, there were warnings that photokeratitis is potentially more severe than had been made clear, with blindness being a possible outcome.

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