Dave Weldon
Avid Member
Howdy All,
This issue should affect very few in the chameleon keeper community since there are relatively few who use mercury vapor UVB lamps of any brand. Westron is an excellent mfgr of MV lamps that are sold under the brand names: ReptileUV MegaRay, T-Rex Active UV Heat Flood, and Komodo UV-Sun. It was recently discovered that the type of glass being used to make certain batches of the UV lamps was unusually free of certain impurities that normally filter certain parts of the spectrum thus altering the UV spectral profile. Unfortunately, this change in the spectral output has left these batches with abnormally high UVB output and spectral content stretching almost to the very dangerous UVC spectrum. The levels and spectral content are abnormal enough that it has produced health issues even for desert basking reptiles. The batches of concern are stamped with either JI, KI or LI on the neck of the lamps. If you have lamps from these batches, the suppliers have made various arrangements to deal with the situation and they should be contacted directly. More about the situation can be found at: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/UVB_Meter_Owners/message/6917. If you are a member of the UVB_Meter_Owners group then you also have access to the report posted yesterday containing pages of measurements and graphs showing all of the data and spectrum plots: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/cHzlS3gA64kE44bLG5l7V1feE0zFLSPAm1TU_QT6ii-EWon4sU-DADgenMFtjnooJ-9AfH74XR-a6FV1r-mI1OFIs9p9KAIt_isRHw/TRexActiveUVHeatLampReportApril2010.pdf
Batches of lamps made before or after the affected batches do not exhibit any of these safety concerns. Thanks goes to Dr. Frances Baines of “UVB Guide UK” (http://www.uvguide.co.uk) fame for her tireless efforts in testing UVB products and maintaining the database that we so often refer to on this site.
This issue should affect very few in the chameleon keeper community since there are relatively few who use mercury vapor UVB lamps of any brand. Westron is an excellent mfgr of MV lamps that are sold under the brand names: ReptileUV MegaRay, T-Rex Active UV Heat Flood, and Komodo UV-Sun. It was recently discovered that the type of glass being used to make certain batches of the UV lamps was unusually free of certain impurities that normally filter certain parts of the spectrum thus altering the UV spectral profile. Unfortunately, this change in the spectral output has left these batches with abnormally high UVB output and spectral content stretching almost to the very dangerous UVC spectrum. The levels and spectral content are abnormal enough that it has produced health issues even for desert basking reptiles. The batches of concern are stamped with either JI, KI or LI on the neck of the lamps. If you have lamps from these batches, the suppliers have made various arrangements to deal with the situation and they should be contacted directly. More about the situation can be found at: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/UVB_Meter_Owners/message/6917. If you are a member of the UVB_Meter_Owners group then you also have access to the report posted yesterday containing pages of measurements and graphs showing all of the data and spectrum plots: http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/cHzlS3gA64kE44bLG5l7V1feE0zFLSPAm1TU_QT6ii-EWon4sU-DADgenMFtjnooJ-9AfH74XR-a6FV1r-mI1OFIs9p9KAIt_isRHw/TRexActiveUVHeatLampReportApril2010.pdf
Batches of lamps made before or after the affected batches do not exhibit any of these safety concerns. Thanks goes to Dr. Frances Baines of “UVB Guide UK” (http://www.uvguide.co.uk) fame for her tireless efforts in testing UVB products and maintaining the database that we so often refer to on this site.
