I think the issue lies in that some were made with higher than acceptable levels of UVB in particular, aka, unbalanced. I beleive someone suggested the bulbs mentioned output higher levels of UVB than normal sunlight.
Dense flexarium like mesh will ofcourse cut much out, more so than aluminium mesh.
Glare is mentioned and may well play a part.
People report chameleons closing their eyes. This is no surprise giventhe sensitivity/accuity of cham eyes, as you noticed, it was hard to look at for you, imagine that amplified through a looking glass and you might very roughly represent what the cham experiences. (again, enclosure types play a major part, as does distance)
Ive seen bearded dragons blinded by them, I beleive the reason for this is that compacts
'concentrate' that output over so small an area, as opposed to tubes which spread it over a wider area and therefore less intense. Direction may also be a factor here.
If you consider such a glaring bulb, even if its UV output is normal and balanced, in for example, a white melamine cage. All surfaces reflect both visible light and UV to varying extent, a white shiny surface much more so. You could liken this to snowblindness, if you ever noticed how bright it is in the snow on a sunny day without sunglasses.
Both light and Uv are bounced back off the snow into your eyes, resulting in much higher levels of both visible light and Uv hitting the cells of your cornea.
The fact that some folk do use compacts without issue seems to make sense whenyou take into account these variables, mesh type, direction, distance etc.
Personally I prefer tubes because as pointed out early, they spread the light/Uv over a much wider distance, which is exactly what I want, since I consider artificial sources purely supplimentary, I want him exposed to it as often as possible wherever he may be in the enclosure because artificial Uv is just not the same as the Natural source.
