by Joel Harrison
19. August 2010 12:15
A study recently published in Optometry & Vision Science investigated how passive smoking affected the eyes of soft contact lens wearers and people who do not wear contact lenses at all. The study involved the examination of twelve right eyes of twelve soft contact lens users who had no systemic or ocular diseases as well as ten right eyes of ten people who did not wear contact lenses. All the subjects were exposed to cigarette smoke in a controlled smoke chamber for five minutes and then, after two hours, examined.
The researchers tested tear evaporation rate and tear film break-up time. They also performed ocular surface fluorescein, rose bengal staining, and Schirmer I tests.
The conclusion was that passive smoke exposure (even a brief one) is damaging to the surface of the eye whether a person wears contact lenses or not. This was shown by an increase in tear instability and damage to the ocular surface epithelia found in both groups of the subjects who participated in the study.