Conjunctivitis and skin erythema. Outbreak caused by a damaged high-intensity lamp

Eighty-one members of girls' basketball teams were exposed to ultraviolet light while sitting in the bleachers of a school gymnasium. A mercury high-intensity discharge lamp lighting the bleacher area had a hole in its outer envelope that allowed the emission of ultraviolet light. Sixty-nine (85%) of the 81 girls were affected; 49 (71%) had symptoms of conjunctivitis and 63 (91%) had symptoms of erythema.