The big UV opportunity

Following on from a recent blog post on UV protective contact lenses http://www.opticianonline.net/opticianspace/blogs/the_contact_lens_blog/archive/2012/05/31/the-uv-message.aspx I can point readers to some new research that shows almost half of UK contact lens consumers would be interested in giving UV protective lenses a whirl. Presented at the American Academy of Optometry meeting in Arizona, the Johnson & Johnson Vision Care-sponsored online study (Contact lens wearers in the UK and Poland and contact lens considerers in Poland) found that awareness of UV protective lenses was low in the UK at 26 per cent, compared with Poland at 66 per cent. That there is a potential market is revealed by the stat that in the UK 43 per cent of contact lens wearers who didn't currently have UV-blocking contact lenses, or were unsure if their lenses offered UV protection, were highly interested in trying them. This is one way of improving the use of protection, with 95 per cent in the UK using some form of protection in sunny conditions, dropping to a lowly 16 per cent in non-sunny conditions. There is also clearly an opportunity for practitioners to promote UV protecting contact lenses and some natty sunglasses.