Comment: Blind to the risks of smoking

Nanny state intervention into people's personal lives is dangerous territory for any primary healthcare practitioner, but is it an area optometrists can afford not to tread? Optician's own straw poll, and the poll on our website, suggest many practices do not caution their patients against smoking.

Anyone in the profession who takes even the most passing interest in eye health issues cannot fail to be aware that there is a direct link between smoking and eye diseases such as AMD.

A recent rash of studies have highlighted that link and thrown up some interesting ways in which young people can be discouraged from smoking. Perhaps most pertinent among the studies is a survey of 250 clubbers between the ages of 16 and 18. It found young people feared blindness more than cancer.