Tag Archives: eye wear

07.08.08
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The history of sunglasses

I honor of UV Safety Month I decided to present you all with some information on sunglasses. Sunglasses, at least versions of them, have been around for centuries! Their purposes and styles varied though the years before they evolved into what we know today. Here are some points of interest on the sunglass time line that might be of some interest.

Milestones:
1300cChinese judges wore smoke-colored quartz lenses to conceal their eye expressions in court.
1430cVision-correcting darkened eyeglasses were introduced into China from Italy
1700cJames Ayscough believed blue-green-tinted glass could correct specific vision impairments.
1929 Sam Foster found a ready market for sunglasses on the beaches of Atlantic City, New Jersey
1936 Sunglasses become polarized, Ray Ban began using Edwin H. Land Polaroid filter.
1960 A clever advertising campaign by Foster Grant makes sunglasses chic and popular.
2004 Oakley, eyeware company, developed Thump, sunglasses with built-in digital audio player.

List found here.

07.01.08
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July: UV Safety Month

July has been deemed “Ultraviolet Safety Month” by the American Cancer Society. It is being sponsored by the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) so the main focus is on eye protection. Your eyes are very sensitive organs and need to be protected all year round. Snow, sand, grass and water all reflect UV rays that can damage your eyes. Make sure that when you do wear protection that you know what you are buying. The darkness of the shade of your lenses dose not indicate the amount of UV protection as many people think. The chemicals that are added during the lens making process determine the amount of protection. It is important to have protection against both UVA and UVB rays. UVA rays are know to cause leathering, wrinkling and other skin aging. UVB rays are usually the cause of skin cancers, sun burns, cataracts and damage to your immune system. The ozone layer filters out a lot of the UVB rays, but enough can get through to cause damage. Skin damage from overexposure to the sun is irreversible and can take years to present itself and while some skin types resist burning, all are susceptible to UV-related damage. This information and more can be found here.