One more warning to those who think they will brave the solar eclipse without the use of special eyewear. Dr. Ellen Weiss is an optometrist with Millard Family Eyecare and explains why that is a bad move. She says looking directly at the sun can do major damage to the retina. The sun puts out ultraviolet rays, the same ones that cause sunburn. Those rays can cause burns in the retina of the eye causing permanent damage that includes blurry vision and even blindness.
Dr. Weiss says, “When you are looking at the sun and those rays are causing the damage, there are no nerve endings in the retina so you don’t feel the retina getting damaged. A lot of times the cellular changes take a couple days to show up. It’s not like you look at it, damage it and then you are permanently blind instantaneous. It is kind of a slow process and you may not know you have caused damage for a couple of days.
Organizations have been giving away solar glasses for months but inspect them to make sure they are ISO standard. Those glasses can be placed over regular eye glasses for proper viewing. If they are scratched or punctured, don’t use them. You can wear the solar glasses over top of your regular glasses and don’t look through a telescope, binoculars or a camera without using the right filters.
