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Eye Safety

Eye injury is the leading cause of blindness in children in the United States.

Each year millions of eye injuries occur.

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Eye Care News for Children
Eye Safety
Introduction to Vision School Program

These usually happen at home and school, often during sports and hobby activities. However, 90 percent of these injuries could be prevented.

Find six things in the picture below that can be dangerous to your eyes.

Answers:
Mowing the lawn with debris flying
Using a slingshot
Lighting or playing with fireworks
Throwing a ball over someone's head
Looking at the sun, even with sunglasses
Throwing sand can all be dangerous to the eyes.

How Your Eyes Are Protected

	Your eyes lie in bony sockets that protect them from getting hit.
	Eyebrows help keep light from getting in your eyes.
	Eyelids close to keep things from getting in your eyes.
	Eyelashes grow along the outside of the eyelids; they also keep things from getting in your eyes.
	Tears help keep the eyes moist. Tears also help to wash away things that can irritate your eyes.

What to Do If . . .? First Aid Tips

	If something gets into your eye, such as sand or dust, do not rub your eye. Wash your eye with water to get the object out.
	If your eye gets hit by a ball or a fist, put cold cloths on your eye for 15 minutes. This will make the swelling go down and the eye won't hurt so much. You should also go to the doctor.
	If an object, such as a stick or a pencil, gets stuck in your eye, do not pull it out. Put a loose bandage on your eye. This is very serious. You need to go to the doctor right away.
	If a chemical, such as cleaning fluid or battery acid, splashes in your eyes, wash out your eyes with water for at least 10 minutes. You need to go to the doctor right away.

Did You Know That . . .

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Babies have very poor vision at birth. They learn to see the same way they learn to talk--both habits and muscles must be developed.
Your eyes sometimes look red in a photograph because light from the flash reflects off the choroid, blood vessels that nourish the retina. To avoid this reflection, ask your subjects to look slightly to the side of the camera.

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Those Amazing Animal Eyes . . .

With players on base, a baseball pitcher has to crane his neck to check base runners and his catcher's signal before delivering the pitch. However, if a type of bird called an American woodcock was standing on the mound, it could see all the bases, home plate, the entire outfield, and the entire stadium, including most of the ceiling of an astrodome--without moving its head.

Those Amazing Animal Eyes . . .

	Scorpions have as many as 12 eyes, and some marine flatworms have more than 100 eyes scattered all over their bodies.
	The eyes of hawks and eagles have special retinas with many small, light-sensitive cells. This gives them vision almost eight times better than humans and helps them see small rodents from high above.
	Tropical fish and many brightly colored animals have more color vision cells than humans. These extra cells allow them to see colors humans cannot.

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Did You Know That . . .

	A person blinks once every five seconds. That means most people's eyes are shut for nearly 30 minutes while they are awake each day.
	Each of your eyes weighs 1/4 ounce, measures less than one inch in diameter, and is shaped like a slightly flattened ball.
	More than one-half of all people in the United States use some type of lens to correct their vision.

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VISION
A School Program

This school program was made possible through the generous contributions of the following corporations, professional societies, and foundations.

Sponsors
Alcon Laboratories, Inc.
Allergan, Inc.
American Academy of Ophthalmology
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Research
to Prevent Blindness
The Foundation Fighting Blindness

Patrons
American Academy of Optometry
American Optometric Association
Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry
Astra USA, Inc.

Benefactors
Glaucoma Research Foundation
National Association for Visually Handicapped
Medical Publishing Enterprises, Inc.

This school program was developed by the
National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, in
cooperation with The Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology.

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For More Information
National Eye Institute
2020 Vision Place
Bethesda, MD 20892-3655
301-496-5248
http://www.nei.nih.gov

Published by
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3998
Revised 1998