Eye health pros call for safety goggles at home

Eric Malone and a buddy had brand-new paintball guns. Because the eight-time world Jet Ski champion and his pal planned to exchange just a few shots, they left their safety goggles in their shrink-wrapped cases.

Next thing Malone knew, he had a broken left cheekbone and a badly injured left eye. It's now limited to peripheral vision. His central vision, even with a contact lens, is 20/200. In other words, he is legally blind in that eye.

"It's an embarrassing conversation, really," Malone said about using the guns without protective gear. "... It was just stupidity."

Malone hopes people, especially youngsters, learn from his poor judgment and remember to wear eye guards when engaging in eye-threatening activity.

"They need to take a moment and think before taking a (bad) step forward," he said.

Malone told his story in connection with this week's recommendation by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Ocular Trauma that every U.S. household have at least one pair of protective eyewear.

The reason, according to new studies by the two groups: Nearly half of the 2.5 million eye injuries that Americans suffer each year occur in and around the home.

Fourth of July fireworks are responsible for less than 1 percent of eye injuries. They're more likely to result from common activities such as mowing the lawn, hammering metal on metal, or putting up pictures in houses.

"Anything that can result in a projectile hitting the eye can be a serious injury," said Joel Schuman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Eye Center. "... Every household should have protective eye wear approved by the American National Standards Institute."

Projectiles aren't the only source of danger. Eyes also are vulnerable to splash and thermal injuries.

"Chemicals are a big hazard, the splash injury, so that goes for things like cleaning fluids and battery acids," Schuman said. Alkaline substances "are more dangerous than acid because they penetrate into tissue and destroy blood vessels, and so the tissue can't get nourished and permanent injury results. Lye, for example, is very dangerous."

Cooking splashes, such as those of bacon grease, "are more of a thermal injury," Schuman added. "That's bad, but not as bad as a chemical splash."

All three types of injuries are more easily prevented than treated, according to H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr., executive vice president of the ophthalmology academy.

"Ninety percent of all eye injuries can be prevented by simply wearing protective eyewear," Hoskins said.

ANSI-approved eyewear is available at most hardware stores and is affordable. Home Depot sells plain and fancy models ranging in price from $4.97 to $24.99. Lowe's reported prices ranging $2.97 to about $20.

Other findings of the surveys:

Men were more likely to be injured (74 percent) than women.

78 percent of eye injuries occurred to individuals who were not wearing protective eyewear.

Nearly half of all injuries were to individuals between the ages of 18 and 45.

Around the home, most eye injuries occurred in the yard (39 percent), garage (12 percent) and workshop (8 percent).

(E-mail Pohla Smith at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at psmith(at)post-gazette.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)