Does air quality affect your eyes?
What do onions, a ripped contact, and low air quality all have in common? Without reservation each one of them may irritate your eyes. You can read more about the onion conundrum here, and what to do if you have a torn lens here, but low air quality? How does that affect your eyes?
When air quality is low, and pollutants are high, little particles can get into your eyes and bug them. You may not be able to see these tiny particles, but trust your irritated eyes, the pollutants are there.
Imagine a less smokey version of a campfire. You're gathered around the campfire with friends, roasting a golden marshmallow, and then gahhh smoke pleh, my eyes! Not only does it block your vision, but wow it burns your eyes.
When the air quality outside is low it may not be as easily seen as campfire smoke, but your eyes can feel it. Common air pollutants include smoke, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, ground-level ozone, and lead.
While low air quality commonly causes eye discomfort, this is temporary and should clear up when the air quality improves. As you wait for that to happen, here are a few things you can do to relieve your eyes:
- Wear sunglasses outside. Might we suggest a stylish pair from Liingo Eyewear?
- Wash your hands often.
- Stay indoors. As you can imagine, the poor air quality outdoors has a much harder time affecting your eyes when you're inside.
- Don't rub your eyes. Everything you didn't want to know about rubbing your eyes can be found here.
- Get an air purifier or humidifier.
- Use rewetting drops as needed.
Low air quality can be a nuisance, but with the proper precautions and remedies you can decrease the affects it has on your eyes.