Hello World! Back in Christmas 1978, when my now-late father bought me the Atari 2600 “Video Computer System” as a Christmas gift, adults, much older adults began warning me that being too close to TV screens will eventually make me BLIND. I was almost nine years old at that time.
As a preteen with a gaming console connected to a “tube” television, I began hearing derogatory statements from “grown-ups” in my church & (elementary) school. These so-called grown-ups were not strangers to my parents, yet told me, “staring into television screens are harmful to the eyes.” As a preteen child, I simply ignored those warnings, as what other kids “my age” does.
The technology of the television units during the 1970s were known as “tube TVs”, in which a cathode-ray tube was used to produce a moving picture on the screen, designed for human viewers at least five feet away. The 1970s’ SCIENCE stated something similar to “viewing too close may damage the eyes.” Well, the excitement received when playing an Atari 2600 VCS “video game” often caused the player to move closer to the TV screen, often within the zone not recommended for “safety” reasons; most humans thought the warnings were fake.
As a preteen child into my early teenage years with an absent-minded mother & military father, nobody prevented me from playing video games “too close” to the TV screen. This was common among other military families back in the day. Video gaming consoles were the norm among military families, especially when living on a military base. My dad served in the United States Navy, whereas the Navy Exchange retail department store were always stocked with the latest video gaming essentials.
Then, in 1982, I transitioned from my Atari 2600 VCS to the Commodore VIC-20 home computer system, which “plugged” into the SAME television set. This first computer of mine, also came from my military dad, a year before his retirement. By my own choice, after reading Popular Science magazine, I began self-teaching myself the B.A.S.I.C. programming language, in which, I also began “staring” into the TV screen as my “computer monitor”. Sure enough, designated computer monitors existed, but were 3x the price of a standard color TV set, so I had to accept a TV as my computer monitor. Though the VIC-20’s text font was “huge”, computer programming often made me move the TV set closer to me.
Though my VIC-20 computer was kept in my bedroom, when my parents brought me to the shopping mall, I began visiting the nearest Radio Shack store, only to find myself working that expensive TRS-80 Model III computer, while my parents were shopping. When my parents drove to the Fred Meyer department store, I went across the parking lot to visit the Radio Shack “computer center”. ☺️ I just ended up with the habit of working TRS-80 Models III & IV at that time. Even my junior high school also had TRS-80 Model III computers in their first “computer lab”, as well as, Mr Jones’ SCIENCE classroom. — Interestingly, where-ever I went, I seemed to always had a computer to “play” with! ☺️
Then, during my senior year of senior high school, I founded my high school’s first computer club! At that time, I eventually took over a business classroom afterschool, containing a dozen Apple Macintosh computers. There was also an Apple II computer in the electronics lab classroom, too! — Yes, I worked computers where-ever I went, and I was not yet 18 years old! ☺️
Yes, during the 1980s, my teenage years, unlike other teenage boys around my age, I spent my spare time computer programming instead of “chasing girls”. If I was not programming a computer, I was usually found at an arcade center, often playing PAC-MAN, my favorite arcade game to date! (Unfortunately, due to today’s blindness, I can no longer play PAC-MAN.) — Overall, during the 1980s, my eyes often were “glued” to CRT-based screens.
Now that I’m totally BLIND for over four years, as a lifelong scientist, I’m beginning to realize my blindness of today began to start happening before I was 10 years old, and greatly-amplified during my teenage years, that radiation from those CRT screens really damaged the DNA of my retinas, as weel as, modifying my retinas themselves. I never stopped my computer programming skills, even when I began experiencing intermittent sight-loss. To a medical doctor, my retinas resemble damage afflicted by hyperglycemia, aka “diabetic retinopathy”. I already know “diabetic retinopathy” is incorrect diagnosis because today’s medical technology cannot identify damage from the cathode-ray tubes of the 1970s & 1980s. — My latest research reveals, CRT users of the 1970s & 1980s are either totally BLIND or have some sort of trouble with their eyesight, in which eye doctors had written off as “diabetic”.
Why isn’t CRT “modified” retinas being recognized by today’s retina specialists? Because the technology of screen filters began changing the CRT market, beginning in the early 1990s; CRTs built in the 1990s had filters built into them compared to CRTs made before 1990. Because pre-1990 CRTs were discontinued, retina damages from earlier CRT technology were also removed from optometry, reclassifying retina damage being caused by diabetes, not from early CRT usage. I also discovered heavy CRT users from the 1960s & 1970s often became BLIND or totally BLIND in early 2000s, if they were still alive, but I was previously warned by a BLIND man in early 1990s that heavily worked a CRT during the 60s & 70s. Back then, I could not understand how or why heavy CRT usage caused diabetes.
Thinking back to the 1980s, when it came to Radio Shack TRS-80 computers, the model III series did not have a pre-installed screen filter that the model IVs had. The Color Computer, outputting on a CRT-based TV screen often hurt my eyes, yet the model 4 felt “good” on my eyes. I do remember not being able to work a Model 1 unit because I often got a headache. I also remember Radio Shack sold two or three types of screen-filters, with each one specifying which computer it was designed for, but the Consumer Protection Agency back then were not promoting screen-filters at that time!
As I recall, during my 20s, employees that experienced trouble with their eyesight, and were working with CRT-based monitors, were often forced-retired with “plenty” of money as their severance package; in other words, they were “silenced”, common activity of major employers at that time. I also could not explain why many BLIND persons were financially-wealthy, after working a job that heavily worked a CRT-based computer monitor, many of which purchased luxurious homes, etc for their families. When I interviewed them, most of them told me their blindness was a “work-related injury” in which they received a “padded” severance package from their former employer. The most common CRT job, were the ones that used a pointer-pen on the screen itself, so the employee’s eyes were within a foot from the CRT screens. Those former employees were paid a lump sum of money to prevent the news media from learning of retina damage from CRT-based computer monitors; I just memorized what they told me, as I often had lawyers snooping into my research projects. (Sometimes, I had lawyers grab my briefcase, to look inside, to read my notes, after I left the residence of some persons.)
During the years leading to my blindness, I attempted to gain old scientific research conducted prior to 1990, in relations to CRT usage, and what damage it causes to the retinas, but I quickly realized, the internet will never have any restricted scientific research published, anywhere. It was like persons’ eyes weren’t affected to CRT monitor usage at all. Then, when the eye doctor told me my blindness was caused by diabetes, I quickly began remembering my research of the 1990s.
In summary, based on my earlier scientific research of health effects of early CRT usage, it seems consumers, such as myself, were not informed of why humans had to stay away from CRT-based TV sets of the 1970s & 1980s. There were only simplified warnings, nothing about retina damage. — I was using a CRT-based computer monitor within five years of my blindness!
Thanks for reading my latest blog post! Have a Great Day!
🇵🇭🇺🇸👨🦯🦽 📱⌨️📻🎧 📚🪀🧮
Marcos Miranda's SCIENCE Blog 