April is now upon us, which can only mean one thing –
baseball is back! After the Dodgers took the Diamondbacks in both games of the
opening series at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia, and then lost to the
Padres on Opening Night at San Diego’s Petco Park this past Sunday, it’s is
safe to say that Baseball Season is officially in full swing. With 13 games
scheduled for opening week, we can only wait to see how the teams will write
the storyline for the 2014 season.
Besides the official start to America’s pastime, April has
also been designated “Sports Eye Safety Month” by the American Academy of
Ophthalmology (AAO).
Each year, over 40,000 sports-related eye injuries occur.
Ophthalmologists and optometrists have named boxing, basketball, field hockey
and (ironically enough) baseball as the sports that pose the biggest threat to
your eyes. And aside from the estimated 40,000 sports-related eye injuries that
show up in emergency rooms each year, there are over 100,000 visits to doctors’
offices on account of eye-related injuries (mostly among children).
Now, this doesn’t mean you should toss the bat or hang up
your boxing gloves (or both). The upswing (pardon the pun) about the majority
of sports-related eye injuries is that about 90% of them can be prevented with
proper eye protection. If you are a regular glasses wearer, we’re sorry to say
that eyeglasses just won’t cut it when it comes to sports. Yes, they are good
for protecting your eyes from daily threats and debris you may incur from
working around the house and yard, but they are no match for a 70mph baseball
flying straight towards your face.
So, what should you
wear to protect your eyes? Luckily, sports eye protection has come a long way
in the past few years. What does this mean for you? Well, no more geeky sports
goggles (that’s for sure). Nowadays, sports lenses and helmet shields are made
with ultra-strong polycarbonate. Ultra-strong polycarbonate is a lightweight,
shatterproof material that is 10 times more impact-resistant than other
plastics and (luckily for athletes) does not reduce vision. Protective
polycarbonate lenses are available for athletes who play sports like
basketball, field hockey, soccer and racquet sports. Polycarbonate face shields
and wire shields are also starting to become standard on helmets for sports
such as ice hockey, baseball and lacrosse.
When buying your protective eyewear, make sure to find
products that have been tested by the American Society of Testing Materials
(ASTM). If you are an ice hockey player, also check for the Hockey Equipment
Certification Council or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) seal of
approval.
In regards to children, the leading cause of blindness is related
to sports eye injuries, the majority of which could have been prevented with
proper eye protection. This spring, make sure to properly protect your eyes
while playing sports. Think about it: is a game really worth harming your
vision for the long-term?
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