HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 February 1943, Page 4

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

USE OF TINTED GLASSES. STANDARDISED LENS ESSENTIAL. (By the Health Department). If you have to wear tinted sun glasses, see that you get these fitted with standardised lens, which are made of properly protected glass that will shield and yet give the maximum light. Actually, most people do not need them, but this summer the wearing of them seems to have developed into a fashionable fad. Tinted glasses that do not give proper protection are dangerous. This has been proved by members of the Services. Casualties from imperfect glasses have led to the adoption of a standardised lens in one arm of the Services at least. This glass incorporates certain metallic oxides that absorb heat and the visible and ultra-violet rays without cutting off too much light for clear vision. Looking at the sun without tinted glasses is asking for trouble. It causes inflammation of part of the retina — the infra-red and visible rays actually burn the retina at the spot on which the rays converge and focus. The delicate lining is destroyed and replaced by scar tissue, and blurred vision results. An eye specialist will soon be able to tell you if you need tinted glasses. People who drive over brightly-lit summer roads a lot may need them, as may those who indulge in sunbathing day by day on the light-re-flective beaches, or those who find themselves above the snow-line. The standardised lens are . available almost anywhere, and they are not expensive.