PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — A recent survey from the New England Eye Institute and Transitions Optical, Inc. conducted on July 12 & 13, 2007 by Opinion Research Corporation showed that individuals remain largely unaware of the dangers that extended exposure to harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays can have on their eyes.

The survey found that while nearly 80 percent of consumers were aware that UV exposure can cause skin cancer, only five percent knew it can harm the eyes. In fact, ninety-five percent of respondents said they were unaware that UV exposure can cause eye damage.

Though eyecare professionals know that every single day, regardless of weather or time of year, eyes are exposed to damaging UV radiation from the sun, the survey found that more than half (57 percent) of respondents said they do not wear protective eyewear when in the sun for extended periods of time. With Americans spending an average of 3.5 hours per day outdoors, this is a significant amount of time for UV damage to occur each day - amounting to a potential of more than 1,000 hours of UV damage to their eyes each year. It is information like this that makes the strongest impact when trying to make that second pair sale.

"The risk that we place on our precious sight by not protecting our eyes is alarming," said Barry Barresi, O.D, Ph.D., president of the New England Eye Institute. "Unless Americans recognize the threat that UV poses and take action to protect the eyes, eye health issues, including cataracts, macular degeneration and cases of preventable blindness will continue to skyrocket." In fact, according to the World Health Organization’s August 2002 Global Solar UV Index, some 3.2 million people worldwide are blind as a result of cataracts, which have been linked to UV exposure.

Nearly half of the young adult respondents, age 18-24, said they do not agree that UV protection is important at all, even though younger people in that age range are at an even greater risk for UV damage that will impact their vision later in life as they are more active and tend to spend more time outdoors.

An effective way of helping patients combat harmful UV rays, in addition to outfitting them with appropriate UV blocking sunglasses as a second pair sale, is to educate them on the benefits of photochromic lenses for their prescription eyeglasses that automatically darken when exposed to UV light.

The New England Eye Institute, a teaching affiliate of the New England College of Optometry, is a network of eyecare centers and programs whose mission is to improve the visual health through collaborative and community-oriented patient care, education and research.