Patient Sues Lenscrafters for Reportedly Withholding Pupillary Distance Request

"A Jersey City man alleges he was refused his eyewear prescription information and has filed a class-action suit. Blane Friest filed a complaint in May in the U.S. Superior Court of New Jersey - Essex County against Luxottica Group SpA, Luxottica USA LLC, Luxottica Retail North America, Inc., The United States Shoe Corp., Lenscrafters and John Does citing violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, Truth In Consumer Contract Warranty and Notice Act and the New Jersey Antitrust Act." That's the beginning of a recent Legal News Line post. "According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on Dec. 22, 2014, he purchased prescription eyewear from Lenscrafters. In July 2015, the plaintiff contacted Lenscrafters to ask about the pupillary distance used in the glasses that he bought, but the defendant allegedly refused to give him this information. The plaintiff holds the defendants responsible because the defendants allegedly refused to give an important piece of information to the plaintiff despite knowing about the regulation from the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs stating that consumers have the right to obtain vital information such as the pupillary distance from licensed ophthalmic dispensers." Read more.

New Marketing Campaign for Prada Sunglasses

"Italian fashion label Prada is portraying a freethinking mentality through a digital effort for its Mod eyewear collection," writes Luxury Daily. "In a series of films, model Vanessa Moody is cast as the leader of a girl gang in which she and her posse traverse a landscape of repurposed factories and underground clubs. When watched as a unit, the films spell out a hidden message, giving viewers incentive to tune in for the entire set. 'The concept for this collection of films was to create the suspense and social media attraction during the launch of eyewear line,' said Anna Szubrycht, founder and president of Chic Being, a Santa Monica, CA-based luxury brand consultancy." Read more.

Willow Smith Models for Chanel Eyewear

"She’s a steady part of the Chanel family and is featured front and center in the brand’s latest eyewear ads. Long-time Chanel muses Kristen Stewart and Gisele Bündchen had to sit this one out, as Chanel Creative Director Karl Lagerfeld photographed his most recent muse, Willow Smith, for the house’s fall/winter ad," goes the Forbes post. "The campaign marks a first for the 15-year-old daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Willow’s Chanel campaign debut was announced earlier this year in March, following Chanel’s fall/winter 2016 fashion show at Paris fashion week." Read more.

How Bacteria on Contact Lenses Cause Inflammation--Study Shows

"Research presented at the ASM Microbe research meeting demonstrates a new way bacteria can cause dramatic morphological changes in human cells," says Medical News Today. "Specifically, the researchers discovered that a common bacterial contaminant of contact lenses and cases can cause the formation of large bubble-like membrane structures on human ocular cells, which can contribute to contact lens wear complications and inflammation." Read more.

Temporary Blindness from Smartphone Use

"In Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, doctors detailed the cases of the two women, ages 22 and 40, who experienced 'transient smartphone blindness' for months," notes an Associated Press post. "The women complained of recurring episodes of temporary vision loss for up to 15 minutes. They were subjected to variety of medical exams, MRI scans and heart tests. Yet doctors couldn't find anything wrong with them to explain the problem." Read more.

Almost 10 Million Americans Are 'Severely' Myopic

"A new study estimates that 9.6 million adults in the United States are highly myopic, or severely nearsighted," according to a post on Medical News Today. "Of those, nearly 820,000 have a degenerative form of the disease and more than 41,000 suffer a complication called myopic choroidal neovascularization that could cause long-term vision loss, with women at higher risk. The findings are being published online in Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. This is the first large-scale study ever done to calculate the real-world prevalence of myopic choroidal neovascularization in the United States." Read more.

Gene Therapy Ideal for Neurodegenerative Eye Disorders

"Diseases of the eye that cause vision loss and blindness, especially neurodegenerative disorders affecting the retina, are ideal targets for gene therapy, including gene replacement and promising corrective gene editing strategies," reports Medical News Today. "A comprehensive Review article providing an overview of emerging therapeutic approaches and innovative gene delivery and gene editing tools to treat ocular diseases is published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free for download on the Human Gene Therapy website." Read more.

Lower Blood Sugar Less Retinopathy

People with type 2 diabetes who intensively controlled their blood sugar level during the landmark Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Trial Eye Study were found to have cut their risk of diabetic retinopathy in half in a follow-up analysis conducted four years after stopping intensive therapy. Investigators who led the ACCORD Follow-on Eye Study (ACCORDION) announced the results today in New Orleans at the American Diabetes Association annual meeting. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute (NEI).

New Flat Meta-Lens Could Replace Contact Lenses

"Researchers from Harvard University have developed a new type of flat lens that could replace more cumbersome curved glass optics currently used in a wide range of imaging appliances," reports the Christain Science Monitor. "'This technology is potentially revolutionary because it works in the visible spectrum, which means it has the capacity to replace lenses in all kinds of devices, from microscopes to cameras, to displays and cell phones,' Harvard professor and researcher Federico Capasso said in a university release. Professor Capasso was also the senior author of a paper on the new technology, published in the journal Science. Capasso's planar lens is capable of processing images of objects smaller than even the best current microscopes, using a titanium dioxide-based array of nanostructures. That oxide is already used in applications ranging from skincare to white pigmentation for paints, foods, and more, and was chosen by the researchers due to its ubiquity and capacity to process light." Read more.

Google's Contact Lenses May Not Live Up to Hype, According to a Report

"The signature product from Alphabet-owned life sciences company, Verily, is still a long way from hitting the real world," according to Business Insider. "The glucose-sensing smart contact lens that Google first announced in 2014 is still just "slideware" that doesn't exist outside of PowerPoint presentations, according to a former Verily manager who spoke to Stat's Charles Piller as part of a critical look at the company's current endeavors. The contact lens project aims to provide an alternative for people with diabetes who currently have to prick their fingers to test their blood glucose levels. Instead, the lens could monitor the glucose levels in their tears. But the Stat report questions whether the lens will ever be scientifically feasible." Read more.

Eyeglasses Age Sports Legions, According to Sports Illustrated

Yesterday was "National Eyewear Day, which is definitely just a made-up holiday. But it gives us an excuse to imagine what the biggest names in sports would look like if they wore glasses. Basically, they’d all look about five years older." That's the opening of a picture essay in Sports Illustrated. Read more.

Eye Color Affected by Protein TPC2

Science Daily reports: "Skin, eye and hair pigmentation requires a delicate balance of acidity within the cellular compartments where melanin is made -- that balance is partly regulated, scientists now know, by a protein called TPC2." Read more.

Cosplayer Risks Vision for Sake of the Game

"The best cosplayers sacrifice a lot of time, money and comfort to pursue what is regarded as an intense art form," according to Houston Press. "'Johnny Hybrid,' the stage name of one half of the cosplay duo known as Hybrid Cosplay, damaged one eye this weekend while desperately trying to remove his special contact lenses. He was preparing to go to Space City Con this past weekend and not only missed it, but will likely have to miss some other scheduled conventions. A doctor at an urgent care center told him he may lose his eye." Read more.

New Visual Impairments Caused by Zika

"Researchers studying babies with a Zika virus-related birth defect say they have found previously unreported eye problems possibly linked to the virus that could result in severe visual impairment," reports Science Daily. "In three Brazilian infants with microcephaly, the researchers observed retinal lesions, hemorrhaging and abnormal blood vessel development not noted before in relation to the virus. The findings are being published online today in Ophthalmology, journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology." Read more.

Star Trek's La Forge Inspires Rihanna's Sunglass Collection for Dior

"As the world gears up for the third installment of Rihanna’s must-have Puma creepers, news arrived of another RiRi collaboration sure to send fashion people into a tizzy. 'After embodying the Dior woman in the Secret Garden IV campaign, the House of Dior and Rihanna are writing a new page in their shared story: the star has designed a pair of sunglasses with pure lines and futuristic accents in a range of metalized colors. Named simply "Rihanna" they will arrive in stores in June,' a release from Dior reads." So goes the Vanity Fair writeup. "The glasses look exactly as they’re described: extremely futuristic, while also giving some strong 80s vibes. Rihanna told Dior that La Forge from Star Trek was her inspiration for the glasses. 'I’ve always been obsessed with his eyewear, and when I got to Dior and saw all the materials I could play with, it all just came together.'" Read more.

Americans with Cataracts to Increase More Than 80% by 2050

The number of Americans with cataracts will increase to 38.5 million in the next 16 years and jump to 45.6 million by 2050, representing a jump of more than 80%, according to the Prevent Blindness “Future of Vision: Forecasting the Prevalence and Costs of Vision Problems. The World Health Organization reports that cataracts are the leading cause of blindness in the world. Read more. 

South Carolina House and Senate Override the Governor's Veto of Legislation Banning Online Eye Exams

The South Carolina House voted to override Gov. Nikki Haley's veto of a bill banning the practice of offering prescriptions for lenses and contact lenses after an online exam. The original legislation banning the practiced was passed 100-1 last month. "Chicago-based Opternative launched its online service in South Carolina and dozens of other states nationwide last summer. CEO and founder Aaron Dallek said the company has hundreds of customers in South Carolina," reports the Kansas City Star. "Opternative offers $40 to $60 prescriptions — depending on whether customers want a single prescription for glasses or contacts, or a prescription for both — within 24 hours for people ages 18 to 45 with a computer and smartphone. Customers taking the test are asked to take a certain number of steps away from their computer screen, depending on their shoe size, and use the computer like a digital eye chart. A text message sent to a customer's smartphone allows it to be used as a remote control. Answers to multiple questions, along with medical records, are sent to a state-licensed ophthalmologist contracted by the company. Inconsistencies mean a prescription won't be written, Dallek said." Read more.

Visual Impairment Skyrockets as Boomers Age

"With the youngest of the baby boomers hitting 65 by 2029, the number of people with visual impairment or blindness in the United States is expected to double to more than 8 million by 2050, according to projections based on the most recent census data and from studies funded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. Another 16.4 million Americans are expected to have difficulty seeing due to correctable refractive errors such as myopia (nearsightedness) or hyperopia (farsightedness) that can be fixed with glasses, contacts or surgery." That's the start of a press release from NEI. Approximately, "1 million Americans were legally blind (20/200 vision or worse) in 2015. Having 20/200 vision means that for clear vision, you would have to be 20 feet or closer to an object that a person with normal vision could see from 200 feet away. Meanwhile, 3.2 million Americans had visual impairment in 2015—meaning they had 20/40 or worse vision with best possible correction. Another 8.2 million had vision problems due to uncorrected refractive error."

 The researchers were led by Rohit Varma, M.D., director of the University of Southern California’s Roski Eye Institute, Los Angeles, led the researchers, and JAMA Ophthalmology published the results just this week (May 19th).
Read more.

Choo Extends Licensing Agreement with Safilo

"Safilo Group and Jimmy Choo have announced the early renewal and extension of their eyewear licence agreement," according to the Moodie Davitt Report. "The deal has been extended to 31 December 2023 and covers the design, manufacture and distribution of the Jimmy Choo eyewear collection. The new agreement has also been expanded to include a men’s eyewear collection. Slated for January 2018, the first Jimmy Choo men’s capsule edition will debut in the brand’s boutiques and a worldwide selection of leading optical stores." Read more.

Poor UV Filtration in Car Windows the Cause of Left-Eye Cataracts?

"An analysis of the ultraviolet A (UV-A) light protection in the front windshields and side windows of automobiles finds that protection was consistently high in the front windshields while lower and highly variable in side windows, findings that may in part explain the reported increased rates of cataract in left eyes and left-sided facial skin cancer, according to a new study." That's the summation from Science Daily. Read more.