FAQ 2: “How important are preventative measures e.g. sunglasses?

Answer: 75% of all cases of blindness are avoidable, through prevention or treatment, which is why learning about how to care for your eyes and making time to prevent what you can is so important.

Self-care includes protecting your eyes from the sun’s harmful rays by using UV A & B filtering sunglasses and wearing wide-brimmed sunhats (CANSA approved are best!). These measures slow the formation of cataracts and pterygiums. 

It is extremely important to protect your eyes with safety glasses while doing the following: brush cutting, grinding, hammering metal, chopping wood. Safety glasses are available from most hardware shops from as little as R80 – R150. We believe this is a great investment indeed

Sports and activity environments come with their own unique set of risks to the eyes. Awareness of the whereabouts of the sports equipment and balls helps to reduce the chance of accidents and collisions.  A good life-long habit of wearing protective clothing specific to each sport/ activity at all times such as glasses for squash and cycling should be encouraged and enforced.