Hoax: Disadvantages of Contact Lenses

"A 21 year old guy had worn a pair of contact lenses during a barbecue party.(An event or meal at which food is cooked outdoors over an open grill or fire) While barbecuing he stared at the fire charcoals continuously for 2-3 minutes.


After a few minutes, he started to scream for help and moved rapidly, jumping up and down.No one in the party knew why he was doing this?


Then he admitted into the Hospital, the doctor said he'll be blind permanently because of the contact lenses that he had worn.Contact lenses are made by plastics, and the heat from the charcoal melted
his contact lenses.


DO NOT WEAR CONTACT LENSES WHERE OVERHEATING AND FLAMES ARE CONCERNED OR WHILE COOKING!"

According to this email message, a young man who stared at a BBQ fire became blind when the contact lenses he was wearing melted onto his eyes. However, the information in this foolish "warning" is completely unfounded.

Years ago, I worked in a Sydney metal products factory. At the time, there was a story circulating among workers that a welder in a nearby factory had gone blind after a welding flash melted his contact lenses to his corneas. The rumour turned out to be untrue. In fact, the story is a long running urban legend that has haunted work places around the world since the 1960's. An American Welding Society Fact Sheet(.pdf) notes:

Since 1967, the American Welding Society has received reports concerning welders who have claimed to have had contact lenses fused to their eyes, either by the heat of the arc or by microwave radiation. Not one of these reports has been substantiated, and safety bulletins issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Safety Council (NSC) have all refuted that such incidents could possibly have occurred.

This BBQ warning message appears to be a mutated version of the older welding urban legend. Like the legend, it has no basis in fact. If an everyday occurrence such as staring at a BBQ fire for just a few seconds was enough to melt contact lenses and cause serious eye injuries, then there would undoubtedly be thousands of well documented cases of such injuries. If standing close to normal BBQ coles was enough to melt lens, then household heaters, stoves, and a variety of other common heat sources would presumably have the same effect. However, I could not locate even one credible report of such an injury. Given that there is at least 125 million contact lens wearers worldwide, it is vastly improbable that such injuries would have somehow escaped the notice of medical authorities and the news media. Quite obviously, if contact lens where so apt to cause blindness when exposed to commonly occurring heat sources, then they would have been removed from the market years ago.

There are potential risks associated with contact lens use, but these risks are generally concerned with possible eye infections and corneal ulcers and having nothing to do with lenses fusing to eyeballs due to heat exposure. Using lenses as instructed and following common sense contact lens safety guidelines can minimize such risks.

Because contact lens may, in some cases, "complicate eye safety", there is also some controversy over the use of contact lens in the workplace. Again, however, these potential safety issues are in no way related to eye injuries caused by "melting" lenses.

Forwarding errant nonsense such as this is nothing more than scaremongering and will serve no good purpose.