What protection should I look for in sunglasses?

If the importance of protecting your eyes from harmful ultraviolet light isn’t obvious by now… then you need your eyes checked. If they offer the protection and polarized lenses you’re after, the high or good deal is probably due to the brand, the material or other design features. Water, snow, and cars can reflect light into your eyes and since reflected UV can harm the skin and eyes up to direct UV, be like a double dose of harmful rays.

Standards regarding impact resistance, no lens is actually shatterproof. Plastic lenses are less likely to shatter upon impact than glass lenses. And, polycarbonate plastic, found in many sports sunglasses, is even more impact resistant than regular plastic, but scratches easily. In the event that you buy polycarbonate lenses, look for ones with scratch-resistant coatings. This is a kind of lens that automatically darkens in bright light and becomes lighter in low light.

Consider that whenever deciding between wrap around sunglasses and tiny round ones. With the ozone layer slowly depleting , increased amounts of UVA and UVB rays are now reaching earth. These rays affect the attention and can increase the risk of cataracts and other eye-impairing conditions such as blindness, eye cancer and photokeratitis (such as a sunburn… but on your own eye).

• “If you’re visiting the gas station on the path to the lake to pick up sunglasses, you’re more prone to have something of lesser quality,” Horn says.