With the Information Age comes a greater need for vision benefits to remedy eye strain and injuries in the workplace linked to prolonged use of electronic devices that are costing the U.S. billions annually in lost productivity.
The American Optometric Association (AOA) recently identified 2,000 daily job-related eye injuries that require medical treatment, most of which can be prevented by wearing properly designed and fitted protective eyewear.
Nearly half of the 1,000 working Americans responding to the AOA’s fourth annual American Eye-Q survey report spending five or more hours a day using various gadgets that, while helping make life more efficient, can trigger eye strain, dry eyes, headaches, fatigue, blurred vision and loss of focus.
“Healthy vision is critical to successfully completing job-related tasks,” according to James Sheedy, O.D. Ph.D., AOA’s occupational vision specialist, who’s also director of the Vision Ergonomics Laboratory at the College of Optometry at Pacific University. “And while most people think of construction or manufacturing as high-risk occupations where eye injuries are prevalent, even jobs requiring ‘smart phones,’ laptops and desktop computers can cause vision problems if not used properly.”
The AOA recommends that people take a 20-second break every 20 minutes and look at something 20 feet away, as well as increase the font size on hand-held devices. Other steps include adjusting the brightness of computer screens, reducing glare and looking in a downward direction when reading material that is below eye level. In addition, the group suggests that people age 60 and younger have a comprehensive eye exam every two years and then once a year thereafter.
