So far I was thinking that sunglasses are a fashion statement that should only be worn by Hollywood or Bollywood stars. They wear such big glasses, give a nice big smile, wave at the crowd and disappear in thin air. But the husband told me such a scary story about a colleague, who nearly lost his sight because of not wearing sunglasses. This made me do a little study about sunglasses. Here are the details.
Sunglasses or sun cheaters protect your eyes from bright sunlight and high energy visible light. Do you know that even prehistoric people wore sunglasses? The Inuit people wore flattened walrus ivory glasses. When exposed to sunlight the eyes suffer badly.
It may cause sunburn of the eye which can lead to loss of vision for 48 hours. The Surfer’s eye is a condition which causes benign growth on eye surface which can itch, swell or become irritable.
The consequences of not wearing sunglasses can also lead to cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, and cancer of the eye and eyelid.
Sunglasses improve the comfort of vision and increase clarity by reducing the amount of glare. Now, you have to protect the eyes from UVA and UVB radiation. Harvard scientists recommend some really useful glasses. The cosmetic variety has light colored tints and blocks about 70% of UVB rays 20% of UVA and 60% of visible light.
The UVA rays are responsible for skin tanning and aging of the skin. The UVB rays cause sunburn and skin cancer. The sunglasses used for the general purpose has medium to dark lenses it blocks 95% of UVB rays and 60% of UVA and 60-90% of visible light. The special purpose sunglasses have extremely dark lenses and block 99% of UVB rays 60% of UVA rays and 97% of visible light.
I hope the scientists have done a great job by advising on the type of glasses to wear. Hope you are on your way to the market to buy yourself a nice pair of sunglasses. And be careful not to disappear in thin air.
Take care,
Take care,
Swarnam
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