Protecting your eyes from the sun

AccuWeather

June 27 is National Sunglasses Day, which highlights the importance of wearing sunglasses to protect your eyes from harmful UV rays. Jacquie Bowen explains the importance of protecting your eyesight.

Transcript

00:00Today is National Sunglasses Day, a reminder of how important it is to protect your vision from

00:05the sun's harmful rays. Here to tell us more is Jackie Bowen, President-elect of the American

00:11Optometric Association. That's a hard word to say and you handled that well. I was nervous because

00:17I had seen it earlier and I was like, oh gosh, how did I break that one up? All right, how does

00:20UV exposure damage our eyes? In so many ways it does. We know the sun is wonderful, we need the

00:28sun, we love the sun, but those real short wavelengths of light damage everything from

00:33the skin around the eyes, which is very delicate and a commonplace for skin cancers, believe it or

00:38not. The lens of the eye develops cataracts. The inside of the eye is probably the retina is probably

00:44where you're getting the most damage. When you are out in the sun and you get a sunburn on your skin,

00:49you feel it and it hurts, but when your retina gets burned, you don't feel it. And macular

00:54degeneration is probably among the biggest concerns that I have. And I always tell my patients,

01:01take care of your eyes, protect them from the sun starting from a very early age because the damage

01:06that's happening, you don't know about. So just like skin cancer, the more sunburns you get as a kid,

01:12the more likely you are to get skin cancer when you're older. By the time we're 18 years old,

01:1680% of the UV damage has already happened to our eyes. So not only for adults and everyone,

01:21but especially those kiddos, get those sunglasses on there. Now, what should people look for when

01:26buying sunglasses to make sure they provide protection? I suspect most people look to make

01:31sure they look cool in them. Sure. But safety should be the number one, right? Yeah. You want

01:36to make sure it's blocking 100% of UVA and UVB rays. There's usually a sticker on there. Some

01:43sunglasses, you know, if you're spending less money, it's probably a treatment to the surface of

01:47the lens. So once it gets scratched or cleaned a long time, you want to replace them fairly frequently

01:52about every six months. If it's a prescribed lens or a higher quality, the UV protection is embedded

01:59in the plastic of the lens. So there is a difference in quality, but anything is better than nothing.

02:05For kiddos, you don't want to spend a bunch of money because they're going to break them and lose

02:08them a lot. So anything sold in this country, if it came through the proper channels, if there's a tint

02:13to it, even a little pink princess pair of sunglasses, it's going to have something in

02:17there. So, you know, again, long lifetime habits going to be your best bet to see well into your

02:22older age. Amazing information. Very good. We both have young kids at home. Yes, we do. So keeping

02:28the sunglasses on them. Jackie Bowen, president-elect of the American Optometric Association. Thank you so

02:34much for joining us on AccuWeather Early. Thank you.

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