Our Vision That all children are appropriately protected from eye injuries in all settings.

Prevent Blindness America 2020 Visionary Goal

Prevent Blindness America has established a core of three visionary goals for special attention between now and 2020 – one each to address children’s vision and eye health, adult vision and eye health, and eye safety. The safety-focused visionary goal is to reduce injury-related vision loss by 50 percent by promoting eye safety.

Healthy People 2010 Goal

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has established a framework for prevention for the nation. It is a statement of national health objectives designed to identify the most significant preventable threats to health and to establish national goals to reduce these threats. Objective 28-9 (Protective Eyewear) establishes the goal of increasing the use of personal protective eyewear in recreational activities and hazardous situations around the home among children 6-17 years.

What We Know

• Each year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of children receive eye injuries which could have been prevented with the use of proper safety precautions.¹




• Children suffer a disproportionate number of eye injuries, sustaining 27 to 52 percent of all ocular trauma.²




• In 2006, there were an estimated 220,500 toy-related injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms. Almost half of these were to the head and face.³




• Nationally, just under 50 percent of all paintball injuries lead to blindness in the affected eye.⁴




• Fireworks were involved in an estimated 9,200 injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments during calendar year 2006, with 1,500 of these to the eye. Injuries to children are a major component of total fireworks-related injuries with children under 15 accounting for 36 percent of the estimated injuries. Sparklers account for one-third of the injuries to children less than 5 years of age.⁵




• According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), decorative/cosmetic contact lenses (often used for Halloween costumes) present significant risks of blindness and other eye injury if they are distributed without a prescription or without proper fitting by a qualified eye care professional.⁶




• Acanthamoeba keratitis is an infection of the eye which can lead to permanent visual impairment or blindness, yet can be avoided through the proper use of contact lenses.⁷




• Mounting scientific evidence shows that exposure to UV rays can damage the eyes, leading to cataracts, skin cancer around the eyelids, and even macular degeneration.⁸




• Each year in the United States, there are approximately 600,000 documented sports-related eye injuries, over 42,000 of which require emergency room attention and an estimated 13,500 of which result in a permanent loss of sight. Approximately 72 percent of sports eye injuries occur in individuals younger than 25 years, and approximately 43 occur in individuals younger than 15 years.^9-12




• Ninety percent of eye injuries can be prevented through understanding, safety practices and the use of proper eye protection.¹³

Our Positions

Prevent Blindness America believes in the promotion and education of simple eye safety techniques to allow for the safe enjoyment of childhood activities at home, school and at play.

Prevent Blindness America has recently reengaged an eye safety committee to broaden its efforts in the safety arena. To date we have developed position statements on five specific eye injury-related topics:¹⁴

Children’s Sports Eye Safety Position Statement

In the interest of reducing the occurrence of sports-related eye injuries and blindness among children and adolescents who participate in athletics, Prevent Blindness America makes these recommendations:

• School and youth athletic league programs must educate children, coaches, and parents about the importance of wearing appropriate sports eye protection.




• Appropriate protective eyewear for sports should be chosen only after consultation from an eye doctor, physician or athletic trainer and must be appropriate for the particular sport and the child's size.




• Children and adolescents should only wear sports eye protectors that meet the standards set forth by ASTM and ANSI.




• State legislators should adopt legislation requiring the use of protective eyewear among children of any age when participating in medium to high-risk sports through school, youth leagues and collegiate athletic programs.




• Protective eyewear should be mandatory for athletes who are functionally 1-eyed.




• Sports eyewear that does not conform to the standards outlined by ASTM and ANSI should be banned by school, community and collegiate sport programs.




• Funding should be made available to help school, community-based and organized athletic programs pay for sports eye protectors for children who cannot afford them.

Fireworks Position Statement

Prevent Blindness America supports the development and enforcement of bans on the importation, sale and use of all fireworks and sparklers, except those used in authorized public displays by competent licensed operators, as the only effective means of eliminating the social and economic impact of fireworks-related trauma and damage. We support legislation that permits the public display of fireworks under controlled conditions by trained and licensed personnel, but bans the importation, general sale and indiscriminate use of all other types of fireworks by adults and children including “consumer” fireworks and sparklers.

Paintball Position Statement

Paintball presents the potential for injury, particularly serious eye injury, including loss of sight, and/or loss of an eye. Due to the risk of eye injury, Prevent Blindness America does not support or endorse the playing of paintball games. For those who do engage in paintball games, the following standards must be followed:

• Eye protection MUST be worn during ALL paintball activity.




• Only use eye protection certified by the Protective Eyewear Certification Council as meeting or exceeding the requirements of the American Society of Testing and Materials ASTM F1776 – Standard Specification for Eye Protection Devices for Paintball.




• The manufacturers and distributors of paintball equipment, and the owners and operators of commercial paintball facilities must follow appropriate safety standards.




• Paintball activity should only be conducted in organized paintball facilities operated and supervised according to American Society of Testing and Materials ASTM F1777 – Standard Practice for Paintball Field Operation.




• Paintball activity in unsupervised arenas, such as backyards and inside homes is strongly discouraged.




• Paintball markers (air guns) should be treated with the same safety precautions as firearms. The marker should be placed on safe and barrel plugs should be used when exiting a playing field. The marker should be unloaded, de-gassed, and locked in a storage unit when not in use.




• Those under the age of 18 years should not be allowed to engage in paintball games without constant adult supervision and the use of all age- and size-appropriate personal protective equipment, particularly eye and face protection. When paintball guns and pellets are not in use they should be properly secured to prohibit uncontrolled youth access to equipment.

Cosmetic Contact Lens Position Statement

There are increasing reports of the dispensing of cosmetic contact lenses, without an appropriate prescription, by non-eyecare professionals such as boutiques, beach shops, tattoo parlors and other nonprofessional commercial vendors. Despite the facts that these lenses offer no visual correction, all contact lenses are classified as Class II or Class III medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration. Therefore, they can only be prescribed and fitted by licensed eye care professionals. In addition, sharing of cosmetic contact lenses has become commonplace. At a minimum, a comprehensive examination for a contact lens prescription includes a measurement of the refractive error, an evaluation of the shape and integrity of the cornea and the associated structures as well as the quality of the tear film. Successfully fitted contact lenses have three characteristics: 1) comfortable wear, 2) clear vision, and 3) no damage to the eye. It is easy for patients to evaluate comfort and quality of vision; however, only an eye care provider can evaluate the health of the eye.

UV Hazards

Prevent Blindness America recommends that everyone, including children, protect their eyes from the sun’s harmful rays. Sunglasses with UV protection can help boost the eyes’ ability to filter out the damaging rays. But if the sunwear doesn’t block UV rays, it may actually be more harmful to wear the sunglasses.

Our Efforts

In the best interests of the nation’s children, Prevent Blindness America commits to reducing the incidence of home, school and recreational eye injuries in children through creating changes in unsafe individual behaviors by:

1. Continuing to distribute eye safety tips via our website and fact sheets.




2. Creating, expanding and implementing programs and messaging to promote eye safety in the home, school and recreational arenas.




3. Developing a sports and recreational eye safety awareness campaign.




4. Pursuing state mandates for the wearing of protective eyewear for children active in medium or high risk sports and those children who are functional in only one eye.




5. Promoting state-based symposiums on eye safety programs and initiatives.

References

1. Brophy M, Sinclair SA, Hostetler SG, Xiang H. Pediatric eye injury-related hospitalizations in the United States.  Pediatrics, 117, 2006:1263-1271.
2. Kuhn, F., Morris, R., Mester, V. Pediatric trauma. In: Peiatric Retina, Ed: Hartnett, M.D., Lippincott Williams Wilkins, Philadelphia, 467-489, 2005.
3. Chowdhury RT. Toy-related Deaths and Injuries, Calendar Year 2006. Consumer Product Safety Commission. http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/toymemo06.pdf.
4. Listman DA. Paintball injuries in children: more than meets the eye. Pediatrics. 2004;113:15-18.
5. Greene MA, Joholske J. 2006 Fireworks Annual Report.Consumer Product Safety Commission. http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/2006fwreport.pdf.
6. Food and Drug Administration. FDA Warns Consumers Against Using Decorative Contact Lenses Obtained Without a Prescription or Professional Fitting. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2002/NEW00846.html.
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Acanthamoeba Keratitis Fact Sheet. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/acanthamoeba/factsht_acanthamoeb....
8. Environmental Protection Agency. Health Effects of Overexposure to the Sun. http://www.epa.gov/SUNWISE/uvandhealth.html.
9. Feist RM, Farber MD. Ocular trauma epidemiology. Arch Ophthalmol. 1989;107(4);503-504.
10. US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Sports and Recreational Eye Injuries. Washington, DC; US Consumer Product Safety Commission; 2000.
11. Vinger, PF. The Mechanisms and Prevention of Sports Eye Injuries. Protective Eyewear Certification Council. http://www.protecteyes.org/PECC Injuries prevention.pdf.
12. US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Sports and Recreational Eye Injuries. Washington, DC; US Consumer Product Safety Commission; 2000.
13. Jeffers JB. An On-going tragedy: pediatric sports-related eye injuries. Semin Opthalmol. 1990;5:216-223.
14. Prevent Blindness America. Position Statements. http://www.preventblindness.net/site/PageServer?pagename=advocacy_positions.