UV Protection Effect of Commonly Used Sunglasses and Guideline for Selecting Sunglasses

ABSTRACT

Although it is well known that ultraviolet and short wavelength visible rays are harmful to the human lens and the retina, consumers still tend to select sunglasses on the basis of fashion rather than protective quality. In order to provide guidelines for selecting appropriate sunglasses, we studied the mechanism of phototoxic damage and UV protective quality of commonly used sunglasses. Commonly used sunglasses were chosen by random sampling, and their UV transmittance was examined by spectrophotometer using neutral density filter method. UV transmittance was shown to be 3.0% to 40.8% and there was no significant relationship between UV transmittance and the tint or darkness of the sunglasses.