Sunglasses

Looking Beyond the Style of Sunglasses

By Anna Lynn C. Sibal

Whether it is summer or not, you should always keep a pair of sunglasses with you and wear them whenever you are out under the sun. Beyond making you look trendy and stylish, sunglasses have another, more important function and that is to protect your eyes from ultraviolet rays.

Not all sunglasses, however, are capable of doing that for you. In fact, wearing the wrong kind of sunglasses, one that does not provide any UV protection, is more likely to cause damage to your eyes rather than protect them.

Now, why is that? When we wear sunglasses, the colored tint of the lenses blocks the light from our eyes. It causes our pupils to dilate in order to get more light from the surroundings and to continue seeing properly. If the lenses do not have UV protection, these rays will pass right through the lenses and into our eyes. This is worse than not wearing sunglasses at all. Prolonged exposure of the eyes to UV rays can cause various eye ailments like corneal sunburn, cataracts, even blindness.

And so it becomes imperative for us to make sure that the sun glasses we wear have nothing less than 100% UV protection. You can do this by checking its OSHA label.

When buying sunglasses, better opt for one that is close-fitting, wrap-around or have larger lenses. This will prevent light from getting into your eyes.

Take note that just because a pair of sunglasses have darker lenses than others does not mean that it will protect you a lot better from UV rays. It is not the color that determines the degree of UV ray protection; rather, it is a chemical layer applied to the lenses themselves.

Speaking of colors, here are the things you ought to know about the color of the shades that you pick:

• Gray-colored sunglasses lessen the glare without distorting colors.
• Brown-tinted lenses also reduce glare but distorts colors.
• Yellow-colored glasses decrease the haze created by blue light and make for sharper vision, but distort colors.
• Sunglasses with green tints filter out blue light and give good contrast to vision.
• Rose-colored glasses provide good contrast for both blue and green backgrounds.

You may also want to bear in mind that just because a pair of shades is quite pricey, it means that you will get the UV protection you want from it. The more expensive types of sunglasses count more for style or durability rather than UV protection.

Sunglasses are more than mere accessories that showcase our fashion sense. They are shields that protect our delicate eyes from the harmful sunshine. Keep one with you always, regardless of the season, and safeguard your eyes.

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