Revision of standards is needed to test sunglasses quality and establish safe limits for the lenses’ UV filters, according to research published in the open access journal Biomedical Engineering OnLine.

Sunglasses and UV protection

Exposure to the sun may deteriorate your sunglasses over time and the lenses may become lighter and so alter the category under which they are classified. It may also diminish the impact resistance of lenses (how ‘shatterproof’ the lens is). Current national and regional standards require that sunglasses provide levels of UV protection linked to the luminous transmittance, which decides the category of the lenses.

Lenses should provide adequate UV filters, because insufficient protection could lead to pathological modifications to the cornea and to the internal structure of the eye. This could cause edema (swelling of the eye which can distort vision), pterygium (growth of pink, fleshy tissue on the white of the eye that can interfere with vision), cataract (clouding of the lens of the eye) and retina damage.

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Article Credit http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/312587.php