Contact Lenses and UV Protection

While in the sun, skiing or sun tanning, your eyes are exposed to the ultra violet radiation as much as your skin is. While, the skin has a tanning or burning mechanism that will tell you when it’s had enough, the eyes tend to be silent victims.

As a skier one spends a lot of time outdoors, enjoying the various elements of nature such as open spaces, fresh air, winds, sun, clouds etc. However, regardless of whether it's sunny or cloudy, hot or cold, summer or winter, while outside, you are constantly exposed to harmful ultra violet radiation from the sun. You can protect yourself from these damaging rays by covering your face and arms with sun creams, sun block lotions and wearing a cap. But how are you going to protect your eyes?

Besides sun’s harmful rays and the vagaries of sand and water, snow too reflects an average of 85% of UV rays. Since eye tissues cannot regenerate, such harmful rays can damage you eyes leading to serious eye conditions such as cataract, loss of vision or snow blindness. It is thus extremely important to protect your eyes in such conditions.

There are specially designed contact lenses with ultra violet protection to help in such situations. Although sunglasses also have UV protection, by virtue of them being perched on your nose, they allow scattered UV radiation to enter from all sides. Contact lenses versus glasses offer complete protection.There are several companies that manufacture daily disposable lenses with built in UV protection which are ideal for outdoor activities

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