Last week Monday was a grand occasion in America. The day of the total solar eclipse. Thousands of people were seen taking to the streets to watch the grand event take place. Even President Donald Trump was spotted checking out the solar phenomenon. People all across America were advised to wear the proper eyewear while watching the Eclipse. And while there were very few eye injuries as a result of the sun itself, California nurses have since reported a ridiculous happening in the region. Several Californians decided to simply spray sunscreen on their eyes to protect themselves, rather than buying the proper eyewear!
Eye safety and injuries
According to the Daily Mail, experts had been advising people about the proper eyewear for the event for quite some time before the eclipse. Experts advised everyone to only buy NASA-approved solar viewers. People were also warned of the adverse effects of viewing the eclipse with their naked eyes.
Experts also showed people how to view the eclipse indirectly through a sheet of paper, should they not have access to the necessary eyewear. And according to The Sacramento Bee, there were very few, if any, reports of eye injury due to the sun on the day.
What happened in California?
In California however, some people decided to try to take a short cut and avoid buying solar viewers.
It is believed that some of these people may have fallen for tweets that went around jokingly claiming that sunscreen could also be used to protect one's eyes during the solar eclipse. Nurses in Redding, California have told the media that they had several patients come into their clinics on Monday the 21st of August 2017, suffering from eye pain.
This pain was not due to the sun but rather due to the fact that the patients had sprayed sunscreen directly onto their eyeballs.
Experts have told the media that they would never have advised such actions. Sunscreens are known irritants to the eyes. Sunscreen bottles even have labels on them informing people to keep the lotion away from eyes.
All the patients that sprayed sunscreen in their eyes have since been referred to ophthalmologists for further care and attention.
Social media has taken its fair share of poking fun at the Californians since these actions came to light. We can only hope that the people will fully recover from this ordeal and that this will serve as a lesson to all people to not believe everything that they see on social media. What a time to be alive!
