by Joel Harrison
24. February 2011 12:43
In spite of numerous warnings issued by doctors, regulatory agencies and organisations dealing with public health issues, non-prescription circle contact lenses are still widely popular. However, it seems that authorities have started to take the problem seriously and counteract it.
As part of a government action, Thai police has recently raided shops selling circle contact lenses at a mall in Bangkok, confiscating around 10,000 pairs of lenses. In addition, two vendors were arrested during the raid for importing the lenses without a licence (after numerous complaints concerning infections associated with wearing circle lenses, all import licences were revoked and it is now illegal to import such lenses in Thailand).
Circle lenses (often brightly coloured) are extremely popular among young people, as they make eyes look bigger, which has become very fashionable as a result of several pop stars’ videos. The main problem here is the fact that circle lenses are sold without prescription and medical supervision, which greatly increases the risk of a serious infection, even leading to permanent blindness.
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