Essilor makes merry

The conference was opened with an interesting presentation on the quality of sunglasses by Dr Colin Fowler. A long-standing item on the list of 'must have' fashion accessories, sunglasses, he noted, also had an important role in protecting eyes from glare and solar radiation.

Current standards for general purpose sunglasses were only concerned with ultra-violet radiation, and the damaging effect this could have on ocular structures. Interestingly, Fowler said, eye protection was not a modern phenomenon, with the first snow goggles created by the Inuit out of bone and, later, wood. Antacin Uranium was used early in the 20th century as a 'UV' tint. The Crookes alpha tint in the early 1950s also had high uranium content, but was eventually discontinued, due to health and safety issues.