I'm surprised to read that Kirk had fogging from his timer.

I have several timers and other glowy things in my current darkroom. The main GraLab I use for film development sits only a few feet away from where I load film onto reels in the dark (I don't use bags). Worse, it sits directly in front of the water bath I use for color development. I do dip and dunk style development and the timer is actually only inches away from the tanks. I lift the film in and out of them obviously multiple times, up to 20 minutes for E-6. I have never seen any fogging or issues from this.

My timers do not glow all that bright though, compared to a couple I have seen in the university darkroom. Maybe they are older.