In focus: News review of the year

January

January began on a positive note with the launch of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care’s Acuvue recycling scheme. The optics of plastic waste had become particularly bad in recent years and the world of contact lenses suddenly found itself with a problem – taken on by practices, Johnson & Johnson and specialist recycling firm Terracycle.

Elsewhere, a woman in Scotland developed an infection after she was given erectile dysfunction cream for dry eye, and Jeremy Corbyn was also given a hard time in the press over his ‘designer’ glasses.

Jeremy Corbyn (Rex Features)

February

Mixed messages on screen time were highlighted in the early part of February. The first ever guidance on children’s screen time in the UK, published by Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health made close associations between excessive screen time and poor health, namely obesity, depressive states and poor diet, but made no mention of eye health.