How to protect your eyes during the solar eclipse, and beyond

Chances are, like most Vermonters, you will be looking towards the sun on Monday, April 8, when it hides behind the moon for a total eclipse. If you have yet to get the appropriate glasses, how can you protect your eyes even for the few minutes you will be gazing during totality?

We asked Elizabeth Houle, an ophthalmologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center, to share her expertise. Houle, who grew up in Vermont, says everyone needs to be vigilant, but we especially need to protect the vulnerable eyes of children.

Just how delicate are our eyes?

Our eyes are highly specialized and intricate tissues, so much so that there are at least eight subspecialties within the field of ophthalmology to address diseases and perform surgeries that affect specific parts of the eye.

Have you seen any patients with complications from previous eclipses or heard about them?

I have. There are two ways that an eclipse can injure the eye. It can damage the front of the eye. The UV and infrared light from the sun can also damage or burn your retina and that tends to be more permanent.

There are other contexts where you can get similar injuries like snow blindness which is a sunburn of the front of the eye. Sungazing can also cause retinal damage.

What does treatment for these different injuries look like?

For the front of the eye, it is photokeratitis, like a sunburn on the surface of the eye. Treatment includes symptomatic relief with lubrication and time. This damage to the front of the eye does tend to heal and improve. There are a lot of nerve endings in the front of the eye so it can be painful until it heals.

The retina can be damaged if someone looks at an eclipse without the appropriate filters even for a few seconds. Infrared light and UV light burn and damage layers of the retina. There aren’t sensory nerve endings so much in the retina so this injury is not necessarily painful, but often within hours of the injury, people will notice they have what’s called a scotoma or a blind spot in their central vision. It can look just like the eclipse. If it’s a partial eclipse the blind spot may be in the shape of a crescent.

Sometimes with time that will improve, but not always. Some people, depending on the extent of the damage, can have permanent damage of their retinas. We don’t have good, or any, treatment if your retina is damaged in this way.

I have heard of people going blind, is that possible or a myth?

It depends on how you define blindness. When someone is looking at the sun or looking at anything in the center of their field of vision, they are using their fovea which is the central part of the retina and that is the part that recognizes fine detail. For example, when you are reading or recognizing people’s faces. So if your fovea is damaged it can have a permanent and profound impact on a person’s ability to see clearly.

Are children more at risk?

In terms of what makes them more susceptible, one potential reason is that they may be more impulsive, and forget they aren’t supposed to look without glasses. Another reason is that the lens in children’s eyes tends to be clearer which means the light penetrates it more easily.

Certainly, if there is a large group of children you would want to make sure none of them were lowering their glasses. I can understand why schools may close and not want to be responsible for the safety of a group of children in these circumstances.

What is the best way to prepare for the eclipse?

Making sure that your glasses or viewing device meets international safety standards [look for ISO certification 12312-2] is very important. Ensuring you put your glasses on before you look at the eclipse and look away before removing your glasses are also important to remember.

If people have children, make sure they understand how to view it properly through appropriate filters. There are also different, and potentially safer, ways to view the eclipse. One is the pinhole viewer which is not hard to make. I did it with my kids when there was a partial eclipse several years ago. There are instructions online for that. There is also a NASA Livestream that people can watch.

Here are the resources Houle suggests:

How To make a Pinhole Camera According to NASA Jet propulsion Laboratory (CIT) https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-to-make-a-pinhole-camera/

Watch the NASA eclipse livestream here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5j95RUSLd8

After the solar eclipse, what other areas of recreation can harm our eyes and what can we do about it?

The list is long, but common causes of eye injuries are power tools, weed wacking, fireworks, baseball, Nerf guns, paint balls, chemical exposures. I highly recommend use of shatterproof safety glasses or goggles when engaging in these or any other potentially hazardous activities.

Avoiding UV sun exposure by wearing a hat and sunglasses is good practice as well because UV exposure can accelerate cataract formation and cause skin cancer around the eyes. Finally, avoiding or quitting cigarette smoking is important for the preservation of eye health.

How can we find the right sunglasses?

You should make sure to buy sunglasses with 100 percent UV protection. This can also be described as “UV absorption up to 400nm.” Polarized lenses don’t provide additional UV protection, but do improve the viewing experience by reducing glare. Darker lenses don’t necessarily mean better UV protection. More expensive glasses don’t necessarily mean better UV protection.

Remember that sunglasses will NOT protect your eyes in certain lighting conditions, including light from a solar eclipse, tanning beds, snowfields and arc welding.

Will you be watching the eclipse?

A: Yes, I definitely will with my kids. They are old enough to use the glasses and we will talk beforehand about how to use them safely. I hope the weather is good for viewing.

Hannah Bennett is a sophomore Digital Media and Communications major at St. Michael’s College, and plans to watch the eclipse, with proper eye protection of course, on April 8.