Staring directly at the sun, even for a few seconds, in search of the perfect shot to take a selfie can cause damage, even irreversible, to the retina, such as when observing a solar eclipse without specific glasses. Damage to the retina can also be caused by prolonged use of smartphones and tablets in the sun: the screen, in fact, acts as a reflective surface directing the sun’s rays onto the eyes where they can produce a degenerative effect. This is what the experts from the Italian Society of Ophthalmological Sciences (Siso) report, meeting in Rome for the second national congress.
Cases of eye damage related to excessive use of tablets or smartphones under intense sunlight are described in the literature: recently the Journal of Medical Case Reports presented the case of a thirty-year-old man who suffered permanent eye damage to the retina after spending three hours reading on the tablet during a trip to the mountains; the same had happened to a twenty-year-old girl who had spent two hours looking at her phone on the beach.
“They are clear examples of solar maculopathy, a condition determined by the absorption of high radiant energy by the retina and pigmented epithelium”, explains Scipione Rossi, director of Ophthalmology at the San Carlo di Nancy hospital in Rome and secretary treasurer Yes I know. “In the most serious cases, the nerve cells in a few days can form a scotoma, a black spot in the center of the eye. The lesion can be permanent and cause an irreversible reduction in central vision”, adds the expert. “For this reason it is advisable to avoid selfies in the sun without specific protection because sunglasses are not sufficient to adequately filter light radiation. Prolonged use of tablets and smartphones without wearing sunglasses should also be limited”, concludes Rossi .
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