Echoes of the Past: Smoking and vision loss

The link between smoking and vision loss from eye conditions including AMD and cataracts is now well-established, but adverts from years gone by show how times have changed.

Published in the mid 1970s, this advert from German frame company Köln-Optik uses a smoking model to seduce Optician readers to its Finesse collection, which had 18-carat gold plated temples. With smoking in public places banned and cigarette advertising now firmly on the backburner, it is difficult to imagine such imagery ever returning.

That said, a survey by the Macular Society earlier in the summer (News 18.06.14) found that 98 per cent of 10-year-olds did not know smoking increases the risk of blindness.