Living in a very hot country with very strong sun i will have to disagree with you Sussane
If you visit poor farming areas of Greece it's common to see folks with various UV related eye problems.
Eyelid cancer
Intraocular melanoma
Conjunctival cancer
Macular degeneration
Keratitis, corneal sunburn
Cataracts
All caused by UV damage to or around the eyes.
A good pair of UV protection sunglasses is absolutely essential for long times spent outdoors in my opinion.
Also disagree on the shady path verdict, you are still being bombarded by UV rays even if you think you are in the shade.
Fortunately for you you seem to have a dark complexion, but speaking as someone who is fair skinned living in a hot country my advice is to cover up, any bits of skin, be that with long sleeved shirts and trousers, wide brimmed hat and sunglasses.
One of the Mrs's uncle had eye cancer, all opinions and disagreements aside, please would you do some more investigation and reading up on the damage UV rays cab do to the eyes.
Please
Hi,
Thank you for your concern. I am sure that most people who expose themselves to UV do so without any significant research what so ever...you are doing all a great service to put this into the awareness.
I have actually done a fair bit of research on the topic before I started to reduce the sunglasses wearing.
And I have spent a fair bit of time in the snow at altitudes above 3000 meters where the UV is extreme, as well as in the desert. (Nevada, and Africa), and on the water in the tropics.
So for high altitude, snow or water (or when eyes are squinting) then I do wear them. Of course.
Of course - Too much sun can and will hurt your eyes.... having experienced snowblindness I am very sure about that...
Of course if anyone is in any doubt... full coverage.
Just be sure to have GOOD sunglasses. UV400. Worst is poor sunglasses that are just dark and induce your pupil to open wide and let all that radiation in.
BUT the question is what is too much, and are there downsides to wearing sunglasses in all sunny conditions.
There, the jury is still out.
There are certainly significant indications that full spectrum UV light, entering through the eyes, plays a role in activating parts of the brain. (Pineal gland, hypothalamus)
Effects of Light on the human body - http://web.mit.edu/dick/www/pdf/286.pdf
As for direct vs diffuse UVA and UVB, I could cite you all the studies but I think that is a little beyond the scope of this forum really.
You may also have noticed the length of my shadow...early in the morning...
Again..I do appreciate very much your thoughtful response.
Peace...
Susanne
Example of research:
Effects of Light on the human body -
http://web.mit.edu/dick/www/pdf/286.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3532811
Int J Environ Health Res. 2001 Jun;11(2):117-27.
Solar ultraviolet exposures at ground level in tree shade during summer in south east Queensland.
Parisi AV1, Kimlin MG, Wong JC, Wilson M.
Author information
Abstract
Data are presented on the effect of the tree canopy transmittance in the visible waveband (VT), canopy width, height and height of the start of the tree canopy (CH) on the solar UV in tree shade on a horizontal plane at ground level during a Southern Hemisphere summer. Of these factors, the VT and CH have an influence on the UV irradiances in the tree shade. The shade ratios (UV in tree shade to that in full sun) for erythemal UV ranged from 0.71 to 0.42, 0.54 to 0.29 and 0.63 to 0.41 for morning, noon and afternoon, respectively,
