Eyes of up to 15 Harvard students are burnt by UV light during a science lab

[Emily]

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/12/2/huhs-lab-retinal/

LPSA Students Experience Eye Injuries After Lab
By Rebecca D. Robbins, CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
Published: Friday, December 02, 2011
Tomi J. Adeyemi ?15 was at Eleganza?s date auction at Cambridge Queen?s Head at 8:40 p.m. on Tuesday night when her eyes started to turn red.

?I thought, ?Okay, this will fade,?? she recalls.

At the time, she figured she was just tired, or at worst, that she had pink eye....

It wasn't pink eye and the eye pain became so severe that she had to go to urgent care.

When Adeyemi and Cheng walked into Urgent Care at 4:15 a.m., the nurses at the front desk appeared to know why Adeyemi had come and asked if she had been in Life and Physical Sciences A: ?Foundational Chemistry and Biology? lab that afternoon. She told them yes. The nurses told her that ?this had happened to a lot of kids? and that ?it had been happening all night.?

The article says 5 students had burnt retinas, but the nurse's comment seems to agree with the comment by "Burned Too" who says 15 students were burnt. And that comment says they were corneal burns, which is what this Medscape article says is likely to be injured by UV light.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/799025-overview

Be careful since many consumer air cleaners are now incorporating UV lights into their design.