Most successful contact lens wearers wish to wear their contact lenses in all aspects of their lives, including the workplace. This may conflict with government or industry imposed restrictions on the use of contact lenses in a given industrial environment. These restrictions, in turn, may be unreasonable and discriminatory. In risk management it is necessary to balance risk with benefits and to differentiate perceived risk from actual risk. Because both contact lens or certain environments may produce adverse ocular effects it is tempting to assume that there may be additive or synergistic effects when contact lenses are worn in that environment.
Ocular hazards are greater in some occupations than others.
Those who prescribe contact lenses for industrial workers should be concerned as to the advisability of wearing the lenses in a given environment. The type of work may influence the selection of lens material and design, and wearing the replacement schedules. An evaluation of the published material, including laboratory and human studies, and well documented case reports, indicates that contact lenses may be worn safely under a variety of environmental situations including those which, from a superficial evaluation, might appear hazardous. Indeed, some types of contact lenses may given added protection to spectacle lens and non-spectacle lens wearers in instances of certain fume exposure, chemical splash, dust, flying particles and optical radiation. The evidence also refutes the claims that contact lenses negate the protection provided by safety equipment or make the cornea more susceptible to damage by optical radiation, in particular arc flashes.