Hundreds of people in the UK are searching for ‘eye injury’ after experts cautioned against watching the solar eclipse with the naked eye.
Skywatchers turned their gazes upward to witness the moon taking a massive bite of the sun for the first time in three decades.
But even though just a sliver of the star was left, looking at it without protective eyewear called eclipse glasses can still cause injury.
People Googling ’eye injury’ skyrocketed from 6pm, just as the moon began to slide in front of the sun, according to Google Trends data.
In the UK, searches for the phrase are up 5,000% compared to the day before, with ‘eclipse eye injury’ now a breakout query.
‘Eyes hurt’ saw a similar uptick in search by around 5,000%, peaking at 100 people searching at 7.08pm, around the peak of the partial solar eclipse
‘It can be hours before you notice symptoms’
Boots Opticians director of optical practice, Kyla Black, told that the damage caused by looking at the eclipse can take hours to happen.
‘Last night’s once-in-a-generation event brought millions together across the world for a breathtaking experience,’ Black says.
‘However, this event was not without its risks. You should never stare directly at the sun, even with 96% of it covered there is still enough sunlight to harm the retina at the back of your eye.’
Eclipse burn – when the leftover sunlight singes a hole in the cornea, which detangles light into nerve signals -can be long-lasting or even permanent.
Damage can occur in less than a minute, as people see a sunspot carved into their vision in the shape of the sun’s crescent-shaped edges.
This burst of intense light, called solar retinopathy, isn’t aways painful, meaning people may not even realise they have injured themselves at first.
‘The retina has no pain receptors therefore when damage occurs you will not immediately notice it and it can sometimes be several hours before you notice symptoms,’ Black says.
Within a few hours, experts say people may see black dots and their eyes becoming watery and sensitive to light.
Blind spots may loiter in the centre of their visions, with patients saying they struggle to read and objects appear distorted and blurred.
‘While most people recover over weeks or months, others can be left with permanent visual problems,’ adds black.
Blind spots have lingered for years in some cases.
Researchers have found this is because the light injures the macula, a small yellow part of the back of the eye that helps see colours and detail.
No treatment that can reverse the scarring caused by solar retinopathy.
Eclipse glasses, also called solar viewing glasses, are cardboard frames with a special film in the eyeholes that filters out harmful rays.
These rays are ones that are mostly visible to humans, such as ultravioletor infrared light, which is why sunglasses don’t cut it.
Black says that people who believe they have suffered an eye injury from looking at the eclipse with the naked eye should visit their local opticians.
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