Ultra Violet Radiation Ocular Hazard

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Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my Blog, hope you are staying safe, today i would like to talk about the dangers we expose our eyes to in our environment.

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Introduction

Hazards may be understood as potential harm, threats or dangers. Hazards exist everywhere even as you go to sleep there are things in your would which poses as a threat to your life, as you step out of your house to go work, there are so many things that can go wrong and at your work place you may notice possible dangerous scenarios that could be detrimental to your health.

So then there is the need for us to be meticulous in all our dealings and to ensure that safety measures and protocols are adhered to wherever we find ourselves. You know you can never be too safe.

UV Hazards

One common hazard we face everyday as we go about our daily activity is the exposure we get from the Sun. UV forms part of the electromagnetic spectrum and it is in the form of A,B and C ranging from 400nm to 10nm. Idea of the UV posing a threat to the eye has been known for a while now, there have been lots of publications concerning UV causing acute conditions of photokeratitis (inflammation of the cornea) and having the propensity to cause cataract, macular degeneration and growths on the eye such as pterygium and pinguecula however till date people hardly take this serious and do very little to protect their eyes.

There are diverse ways by which UV gets to us and into our eyes to cause whichever damage that may be done. UV may be reflected from smooth surfaces and metals or simply from the sun as it enters our atmosphere. Even the white cotton cloths someone is wearing does a lot in getting UV into your eye. At the work place we may be exposed with the use of UV sources of lighting and lamps. Welders have great exposure to UV from their work. The interesting thing however is that the retinal cells do not have any receptors against this unlike in the case of blue wavelengths where the xanthophylls present at the macular does more to protect itself.

The theory of how UV causes damage to the Eye

The idea behind how UV damages our eyes revolves around the oxidation and free radical formation. The energy from the UV is able to eject electrons from a stable atom or compound causing the molecule to become unstable, when this happens we get what we call radicals. Radicals are highly active and reactive and does not really care who or what it reacts with so long as it comes into contact with it, so it end up cause damage in our systems. In the eye free radical formations in also attributed to conditions such as cataract formation and macular degeneration. So the more these radicals float around there more possible damage to be cause.

How to Protect Yourself.

There are simple habits that we can adopt to protect our eyes from much of the UV exposure. Wearing a hat on a sunny day would do you a lot of good. The use of spectacles is also highly recommend. One need not have a refractive error to use spectacles, with a photochromic or transition lens you can protect you eyes from UV exposure. You may also opt for 100% UV protective glasses. Workers whose environment exposes them to lots of UV radiations are to use protective equipments such as UV helmets, googles and eye glasses.

When in doubt talk to your optometrist. Remember, you can never be too careful. Always report all ocular cases and emergencies to your optometrist. Stay safe and thanks for reading.

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Reference

van Kuijk F. J. (1991). Effects of ultraviolet light on the eye: role of protective glasses. Environmental health perspectives, 96, 177–184. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9196177
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/sun
https://www.aoa.org/patients-and-public/caring-for-your-vision/uv-protection
https://www.webmd.com/eye-health/qa/does-radiation-cause-eye-damage



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