Why is it important to protect my eyes?

Protect your eyes – They need to last a lifetime!

When we’re young we’re not very concerned about our vision, or why we should protect our eyes from the harmful light – but exposure can cause long-term damage.

Frequent exposure to sunlight makes us more likely to develop age-related macular degeneration earlier in life. It’s a common condition among elderly with typical symptoms being loss of central vision, making it hard to recognize faces, drive and read. Pterygium or ‘surfer’s eye’ is a growth of pink, fleshy tissue on the white of the eye and is a common eye condition that affects people who spend a lot of time with unprotected eyes in extremely bright environments, such as on the beach, close to water. The eyelids and the sensitive skin around the eyes are particularly prone to develop skin cancer.

So, instead of taking our vision for granted we should give our eyes the best possible chance of lasting a lifetime. The best way is to protect them from both hazardous UV rays as well as blue light.

‘Snow blindness’ is a very painful state that can occur after just 15 minutes of overexposure to UV-light, and comes from the sun burning the cornea. It happens quite commonly to people who don’t wear sunglasses, or use sun-glasses with insufficient protection in situations with very bright light exposure, such as high altitude, or on snow. Frequent exposure to UV light increases the risk of developing eye diseases and accelerates the development of cataract.

Learn how to avoid the harmful light!

• The protection against overexposure of UV light and blue light is naturally particularly important in bright situations like in snow, on the water or at the beach. On top of this, you should keep in mind the following:
  High altitude increases UV intensity and is for example1.5 times more pow-erful at 3,000 meters than at sea level.
• On a cloudy day you are still being exposed to hazardous light, even though direct sunlight is blocked.
• When the sun is low in the sky, e.g. during mornings and afternoons, the exposure of harmful light may be higher than you think.
• Even in the shadow, our eyes are exposed to almost 50% of the direct UV radiation from the sun.
• 40% of the UV rays that reach your eyes have been reflected from the surroundings and reach your eyes from the sides, underneath the glasses, from above, from your cheeks and are even reflected from the inside of the lenses of your glasses.
• A hat or a cap does not give enough protection even though it gives a good base protection.