Vision Protection & Sunglasses (Summer 09 Issue)

UV protection is not only important for our skin, but also for our eyes. Absorption of the sun’s harmful rays can contribute to or cause serious and even irreversible vision damage.

UV Protection and Lens Make-Up:

Although most sunglasses claim to have UV protection, the protection may only be in the coating of the lens and not in the lens itself. As soon as that coating gets scratched, harmful light rays can easily pass though the lens directly into your eyes. Look for sunglasses that have UV protection built right into the lens itself.

Lens Colours

Lenses come in a variety of shades, from clear all the way to dark black or with iridescent coatings.

· Common sense tells us that the brighter the sun, the darker the lens you should use to help reduce glare.

· Iridescent coating can help reflect rays in bright light conditions but is not consistent UV protection on it’s own.

· Yellow and bronze lenses are also useful on cloudy, misty days or in darker forest conditions with low light penetration. These lens colours help define contrast, so can actually help with your depth perception when light conditions make it difficult.

· Remember - harmful rays can still penetrate readily through fog and clouds and can still harm your eyes. These are good days for light or even clear lenses – when you don’t need to make things darker but still want protection.

Physical Protection – Lens Durability

Whether you are racing through the woods on your mountain bike or on the volleyball court with someone jump serving at you, you don’t want your lenses to shatter into shards if you get hit. Never do any active sport wearing sunglasses with glass lenses.

I have met people who have suffered severe damage to their vision because they didn’t have adequate protection: one girl suffered from what she called “night blindness” – which simply means that as the sun sets and it grows darker, she begins to lose contrast and depth perception. I met another woman who was suffering from a condition called “Pteryguim “ which was manifesting with tissue growth on the whites of her eyes. If the growth were to continue, her vision would be blocked completely. Both of these conditions are a direct result of too much time in the sun without proper vision protection. Both of these women were in their early 20’s.