Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Xue Renzheng
Correspondent Jian Wenyang Dai Xi'an
On February 11, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is being carried out in an orderly manner, and more and more people are inspired by the Olympic spirit to learn from Gu Ailing, Su Yiming and other athletes, and have walked into the ice and snow fields to personally experience the charm of ice and snow sports.
According to Qiao Lei, owner of Guangzhou Snow Leap Ski Club, after the start of the Winter Olympics, the number of customers who came to experience skiing increased significantly, an increase of more than 50% compared with the same period last year, and most of them were novices.
Skiing is indispensable to a set of professional equipment, ski clothes, ski boots, helmets, gloves, ski poles are all escorting the safety of participants. However, there is one key piece of equipment that is always overlooked by "ice and snow novices" - goggles. Its most important function is to prevent ultraviolet light and, more accurately, to prevent snow blindness.
In the snow field, it is basically equivalent to looking directly at the sun
Recently, a citizen of Guangzhou who traveled out consulted Xia Zhaoxia, deputy chief physician of the Department of Ophthalmology of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, because he watched the snow in the scenic spot for a long time and did not protect his eyes, resulting in blurred vision in his right eye. Xia Zhaoxia introduced that this is snow blindness.
"Snow blindness, also known as electro-optic ophthalmia and ultraviolet ophthalmia, is an eye injury caused by excessive ultraviolet radiation." Xia Zhaoxia explained.
In the usual environment, the light seen by the eye is reflected from the ground, buildings and other objects, and after reflection, the intensity of sunlight will be greatly weakened, and generally will not cause harm to the eyes.
"In the snow field, it is basically equivalent to looking directly at the sun." Xia Zhaoxia said that snow is composed of ice crystals, like countless small mirrors, with strong reflectivity. The ultraviolet rays reflected by the snow layer irritate the eyes, causing damage to the cornea and conjunctival epithelium, and in severe cases, direct damage to the retina and macula, causing snow blindness, light eye redness, slight lacrimation, and severe cases leading to transient visual impairment. At this time, wearing goggles can effectively avoid the damage of ultraviolet rays to the eyes.
Another important reason is that the speed and passion pursued by ice and snow sports are often accompanied by splashes of ice particles. In the case of bobsleigh racing, for example, the top speed can reach 145 km/h. With such strong winds caught in the ice particles, the goggles provide a protective barrier for the athlete's eyes to avoid eye injuries.
In addition, the air in the snow is cold, and when performing ice and snow sports, the tears on the surface of the eyes will evaporate rapidly, resulting in very dry eyes. Goggles can help athletes slow down the evaporation of tears on the surface of the eyes to a certain extent.
Reasonable treatment will not leave sequelae
What should I do if I have symptoms of snow blindness? Xia Zhaoxia introduced that doing a good two-step job can effectively alleviate the pain caused by snow blindness and reduce the harm in the later stage.
First, patients should immediately rest in a warm, low-light place. If the symptoms are not alleviated, seek medical treatment in time; secondly, immediately wear sunglasses, snow goggles, goggles and other glasses that can filter ultraviolet rays, or use eye masks and clean gauze to cover the eyes to prevent further deepening of symptoms and snow blindness.
It is worth noting that after the appearance of snow blindness, the cornea will be in an extremely fragile state, if you wear contact lenses should be removed immediately to prevent corneal infection, do not rub your eyes with your hands, do not wash your eyes with milk, homemade salt water, etc.
"Although snow blindness can cause eye discomfort, don't worry too much." Xia Zhaoxia said, "The cornea has a certain ability to repair itself. "After the above emergency treatment, seek medical treatment in time and follow the doctor's instructions, the symptoms will disappear in 2 to 3 days, and there will be no sequelae."
Xia Zhaoxia stressed that myopic people can also embrace ice and snow sports, but highly myopic people are not recommended to participate in strenuous ice and snow sports.
"In patients with high myopia, the eye axis becomes longer, the eyeball wall is softer and thinner, and the retina also becomes fragile, and once a collision occurs during high-speed gliding, it is easy to cause retinal detachment and blindness." She said that for sports enthusiasts with myopia, especially high myopia, professional regular eye health check-ups are particularly important.
Snow mirrors choose to learn a lot
To avoid snow blindness in the snow field, choosing the right goggles for yourself becomes an indispensable step.
Xia Zhaoxia introduced that choosing a snow mirror must first look at the type of snow mirror. Snow mirrors are mainly divided into cylindrical mirrors and spherical mirrors. The reflective surface is a mirror of the spherical part, called a spherical mirror; the reflective surface is a mirror of the cylinder part, called a cylindrical mirror, and both have advantages and disadvantages.
In the horizontal and vertical direction of the spherical mirror, it is a curved spherical design, which is more in line with the visual conditions of the human eye (because our eyes are also spherical). In the field of vision, anti-fog, anti-glare, windproof and other aspects, better than the cylindrical mirror, although the price is slightly expensive, but the compatibility is strong, recommended for novices to buy.
After several improvements, the comprehensive performance of the cylindrical mirror has also been greatly improved. Most importantly, the cylindrical mirror will not cause image distortion because of the "spherical curvature", which can reduce the dizziness caused by the deformation of things, suitable for snowboarding that needs to slide sideways and have larger movements, and many professional skiers will still use cylindrical mirrors.
Secondly, the choice of snow mirror color should also be based on the scene of the snow field. Yellow and rose are more suitable for rain and snow, haze, cloudy and other weather to enhance contrast and perception; silver, blue, gray, and black are more suitable for sunny days and strong sunshine to better filter ultraviolet rays; amber and brown are suitable for low and medium light conditions such as evening, enhancing shadow perception and clearer vision.
In general, the light is strong, the lens color is darker, you can better filter the light; the light is weak, the lens color can be slightly lighter, keep the field of vision clear.
(For more news, please pay attention to Yangcheng Pie pai.ycwb.com)
Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Image | Visual China
Editor-in-charge | Wu Anqi