As a fix, I advocate using everyday, normal incandescent bulbs. They generate a ton of IR, because they are only about 6% efficient: about 6% of the energy consumed by the bulb results in visible light (the desired quantity) and 93% of the energy is thrown off as … heat, that is, as IR radiation. In other words, there is no UV risk with these bulbs, or we’d all have to wear sun glasses in our homes.
That chain of thought is somewhat flawed. Allow me to paraphrase you for effect:
there is no UV risk with the Sun, or we'd all have to wear sunglasses when exposed to sunlight.
I have found some useful information here:
http://www.rope rld.com/science … flightbulbs.htm
Incandescent bulbs do emit some UV radiation, but little enough that we don’t need to care about it (actually it can even be beneficial, allowing for a tiny bit of vitamin-D synthesis).
Infrared lamps are mostly like the incandescent bulbs used for lighting, but tuned so that their radiation power spectrum is shifted to the infrared side. Thus, for the same nominal power, an IR bulb emits less UV radiation than its regular incandescent counterpart. Because of this, I don’t think there can be a problem with UV radiation coming from an IR lamp (maybe someone has access to more reliable information?).
BUT there can be a problem with excessive heat. Our cells want to be at "body temperature", and it is bad for them to be at higher temperatures for long. That’s why you shouldn’t heat your unit for an extended period of time, unless you can make sure the temperature is appropriate (which you can’t do with an IR lamp).