An eye-opening look at sunglasses

Jul. 6--If you think good sunglasses are too costly and inexpensive glasses are too cheap to do any good, eye doctors hope you'll take a second look.

Cheap glasses that sell for less than $20 at drugstores performed as well as a pair of high-end spectacles costing nearly five times that in a test of ultraviolet blocking arranged by The Roanoke Times.

One pair selected for the test, a $1 set of kids' sunglasses, matched a $95 pair of Carrera sunglasses in UV protection, with both blocking all UV.

Proper eyewear guards the eyes from a big threat -- the sun.

We asked an optician to measure how well six pairs of cheap sunglasses and one pair of expensive glasses protected against damaging ultraviolet rays.

All were nonprescription glasses available over the counter.

The results were clear: Even the cheapest glasses delivered the sun protection eye doctors recommend.

Credit a sunglasses industry that has made diligent use of offshore manufacturing to improve quality while keeping prices of many of its products affordable.

But first, a few statistics.

Cheap glasses are selling in America.

The Sunglass Association of America recognizes two price ranges: below $30 and above. Nearly nine in 10 pairs sold in the United States are below-$30 glasses, according to association data.

Spending on adult glasses, the biggest category of nonprescription sunglasses, totals $1.92 billion a year. And spending on under-$30 glasses totals about the same as spending on over-$30 glasses.

What's in a better pair of spectacles?

Many people see more clearly through better glasses, because the lenses are routinely free from warps and other defects found in some low-end glasses.

The UV protection is built in, rather than a coating sometimes used in inexpensive glasses that is vulnerable to chipping or peeling off. The frames are better made and last longer.

Roanoke optometrist Donald "Mac" Scothorn said that while cheap glasses can meet a need, consumers who pay more gain comfort, quality and protection from such features as polarization, which filters the intense, reflected light that comes off horizontal surfaces such as water and snow; and special coatings applied to the back of the lens to manage light that sneaks in from the side. Light from the side can be a problem when it bounces off the back of the lens into the eye. But when side light hits a lens' backside with the special coating, which is nonreflective, it passes through the glasses and out the front, Scothorn said.

Scothorn thinks the best brand of sunglasses is Maui Jim, which start at $115 on bizrate.com.

He had a pair, but "I lost them," Scothorn said.

When Scothorn coaches sports, he wears Oakley glasses, which start at $60 on bizrate.com. His pair wraps part way around his head, keeping away light that would otherwise sneak in from the side. Wraparound is a feature eye doctors recommend because unfiltered sunlight -- from any angle -- is the culprit in eye damage.

So, the protection offered by a pair of sunglasses really depends on the total package -- whether the lens has UV protection built in or just a coating, whether the back of the lens has the anti-reflective coating, whether the glasses wrap around the head to keep out side light and similar factors.

Why all the attention to sunglasses? According to Roanoke ophthalmologist Ken Tuck, former president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the unseen spectrum of sunlight known as ultraviolet light has been implicated in a host of eye problems.

Unfiltered sunshine can cause a growth on the white of the eye known as a pterygium; can burn the central, outermost surface known as the cornea, causing a problem called photokeratitis; can lead to cataracts, or cloudiness of the lens; and can contribute to macular degeneration, a disease of the retina, the all-important membrane that transmits impulses to the optic nerve.

Disease may not occur until late in life, but "scientific evidence is piling up that long-term exposure to invisible UV radiation can damage the eye and lead to vision loss," said Tuck, reading from an AAO handout.

Not to mention, sunlight sunburns unprotected eyelids.

Children need glasses as much as adults, and maybe more, eye specialists say.

Scothorn said he has seen research that shows human beings experience half of their lifetime exposure to sunlight by age 16. Children 6 months old and younger shouldn't be in the sun, he said.

Not convinced sunshine-caused eye disease is a problem?

Tuck's practice is affiliated with a Salem eye-surgery center, the Roanoke Valley Center for Sight. The surgeons sometimes do cataract procedures on 40 patients in a single weekday, spokeswoman Beth Kolnok said.

There's no way to know what share of those cases are the result of UV light or normal aging. But it's a good bet some are.

Lee Helms, a Roanoke County ophthalmologist, agreed with Tuck.

"The one feature that I look at when I go to buy nonprescription sunglasses is ultraviolet filtering characteristics," Helms said.

Such characteristics are shown on the labeling.

The Food and Drug Administration, which considers nonprescription sunglasses as over-the-counter medical devices, requires sunglass lenses be made of shatter-resistant material. UV protection is optional under FDA rules.

However, the sunglass industry began putting anti-UV features in glasses sold in the United States in response to the demands of large retailers who knew consumers were growing concerned about UV, said industry spokesman Henry Lane.

It started in the mid-1990s "and has become something everyone now adheres to," said Lane, president of Dioptics, a California sunglass company, and chairman of market research for the Sunglass Association of America.

And according to the FDA, if a pair of sunglasses says it offers UV protection, it has to. Otherwise, "it will be considered misbranded under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and subject to regulatory action," said FDA spokesman Stephen King.

Production of sunglasses is centered in Asia.

"It started in Japan, went to Korea, then to Taiwan and on to China and this is the last 25 years. It has followed labor costs," Lane said.

The factories "have gotten a very high-quality manufacturing process to deliver huge volumes at low prices" while meeting product specifications demanded for goods to be sold in the United States.

Not exactly the stuff of rub-your-eyes amazement, but with summer sunshine blazing, it's a good time to pause and consider if you're prepared for the UV threat.

Said Chris Clark, manager of Blue Ridge Optical in Roanoke County: "You're better off if you get a pair of Ray-Bans or Maui Jims if you want to drop some major cash. You can spend up to $300 on a good pair of glasses. If you can't afford a nice brand name, get something off the rack at the grocery store because it's crazy to go without ultraviolet protection."

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