Most of us these days have had the message hammered home about
protecting our skin from the sun. But what about sun damage to
our eyes? If you have spent any time at all outside in bright
glaring sunlight you will recall the feeling of gritty irritable
eyes afterwards. Is this discomfort temporary or can your eyes be
damaged permanently by the sun?

Why do eye experts recommend good quality sunglasses? And what
does good quality mean? Some people think it’s all about glare
and how best to see in bright conditions on the beach and
snowfields, but that’s not the true danger. The nasty damage
comes from invisible ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV rays are
dangerous because they are high energy radiation and are present
in even the weakest sunlight. Although you can’t see UV rays you
can see and feel the damage. Anyone who has ever been sunburned
knows how much pain UV rays can cause! 

Sun burn and skin cancers are due to a dangerous shorter
wavelength ultraviolet radiation known as UV-B, while skin
dryness and ageing changes are due to the longer wavelength UV-A.
What sort of eye damage can you get from UV exposure? It’s
usually classified by location and is broadly split into two
groups… damage to the front of the eye comes from both UV-A and
UV-B while only the deeper penetrating UV-A can affect the back
of the eye.

Scientific experts agree that long term exposure to deep
penetrating UV-A is one of the main contributing factors in age
related retinal eye damage such as macular degeneration. The
retina is the sensitive vision layer at the back of the eye. Age
related macular degeneration is a progressive deterioration of
the central part of this layer and is regarded as one of
America’s leading cause of vision loss over the age of 65.

UV damage to the front part of the eye is more common and much
more visible. The conjunctiva or outer protection layer of the
eye is the most exposed to sun damage and just like your skin, it
dries up and hardens. A growth called a pterygium can occur where
the conjunctival tissue gradually thickens and grows onto the
cornea (the clear window at the front of the eye) threatening
vision. A pterygium can be surgically removed but repeat exposure
to further UV can cause rapid regrowth and this is a serious
problem.

Another UV induced vision problem is cataract. Cataracts are a
cloudiness of the lens inside the eye and cause significant
vision impairment. In worldwide areas of intense UV such as the
tropics, cataracts occur decades earlier than in lower UV
regions. Once cataract affects vision the only solution is
surgical removal so prevention is the best protection.

It’s pretty clear that an important factor in good sunglass
design is blocking UV. Sunglasses able to block 100% of both UV-A
and UV-B wavelengths are the clearly the best way to avoid long
term UV eye damage. Broad brimmed hats may seem like another good
solution but reflected sunlight off surfaces such as water, sand
and snow easily gets under such a guard. Combine UV blocking
sunglasses and the hat however and you have the best protection
of all!

Among the most vulnerable group for UV eye damage are our
children. They usually spend more time outside than many adults
and few of them wear sunglasses. Even young children need good UV
blocking sunglasses. The campaign to educate parents and
children to cover up against skin cancer has been very
successful… Now we just need to teach them to “cover up”
against UV eye damage!

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