Through its own research centre, VFF "Mare Nostrum®" & V. has carried out a study on the use of sunglasses containing Carbon® Melanin lenses. The study was conducted in pecific weather use conditions (strong solar luminosity and sun reflection from snow and ice conditions). The results have shown the exceptional effectiveness of the of Carbon® Melanin filter
Wildon
12.01.2001
TECHNICAL
REPORT ON
THE
EYE PROTECTION PROPERTIES
OF
CARBON® MELANINA LENSES
Made
by INTERCAST EUROPE S.p.A. Italy
PREFACE
This
report concerns a study made by our Research Center on the use of eye-glasses
made by ourselves and used solely by our scientific staff inside our Research
Center, without any commercial scope.
Such
eye-glasses have a very particular shape and where adapted to the users. In
this way the lens performance was increased and gave optimum results in a specified
application.
The
mounting of said eye-glasses consists of three parts:
PART
A
Front part containing 4 pcs of CARBON® MELANINA doubled mounted lenses (2 left & 2 right). The first manufacturing step was the hand-milling of lenses with diameter of 70mm , thickness 1.8mm/ base 6, cutting shape of the earth ball with flattened poles.
As
we do not build ophthalmic devices every day we had to face some difficulty in
cutting the lenses to shape. We also were under time-pressure as the finished
eye-glasses testing should start as early as possible.
The
difficulties in working with such lenses were due to the small thickness of
only 1.8mm (in some cases the lenses broke during the first milling step). Besides,
we noted that the dust particles resulting from the milling, can damage the
lenses within an area of 1mm from the milling point. This ismost probably due
to the use of wrong cutting tool.
However,
we managed to resolve this problem. The next step was cutting the lenses edges
to fish-bone shape in order to allow its fixing to the mounting with a special
sealing adhesive. The mounting shape was purpose-built to allow air flow also
in bed weather conditions wind and dry snow dust.
ADHESIVE
used:
MASTER
BOND GRADE EP-29-LPSP (made by TRACON Inc. – USA)
Cryogenic
Version / NASA approved
MIX
ratio 100/68 – Viscosity 667 cps
Stabilizing
time 6g at 25°C, 55% rH
High
resistance to chemical agents
In the manufacture of the mounting
provided by us we employed a number of resins and titanium parts. The mounting
design is not traditional.
PART
B
Upper protection made with four CARBON®
MELANINA Lenses (2 right & 2 left), cut in the same way to see above but
with the shape of spherical slices. This particular structure was necessary
because the eye-glasses have to offer a double protection against double
reflection.
This
reflection depends not only from the sunlight during day-time on a certain
altitude but it depends also from the colour of clothes and the cap that the
person wears (usually white-grey).
The angle determined for calculating
the spherical slice was adjusted to face and eye-socket of the individual
eye-glasses users. Suche angle range is from 1.25° minimum to 2.6° maximum.
The eye-glasses were so equipped with
an upper inclined cover in additional to the inclined position of the opposite
lenses. This guarantees the total elimination of any kind of reflection wherever
a person wears such eye-glasses.
PART
C
Lateral protection consisting of two
CARBON® MELANINA lenses see above (1 right & 1 left) cut to shape from
lenses base 6.
This lateral protection was
purpose-built to match the user’s orbital-parietal shape. Moreover, we also
considered the muscle variation effect on the mounting’s poles and to face
movements of persons wearing the eye-glasses because the lateral protection must
always avoid the entrance of light not filtered by the CARBON® MELANINA lenses.
The lenses shape reminds you of the
section of a conus surface with a conus “a” value ranging from 4.8cm to
5.8cm.
The mounting’s hinges were fixed in
a point that was reinforced with two stripes of laminar silicon of 1mm thickness.
As result of this special treatment
the eye-glasses overall weight increased up to an average weight of 131-153
grams.
Our current research aims at further
improving the lenses positioning and at designing new mounting frames.
MEDICAL
ANALYSIS
The
persons that took part in the test, had the following general features:
MALE:
Age
: 32 – 58 years
Weight
: normal weight type with factor 23.5
Food
: normal protein type, limited iodine salt use, balanced nutrition,
paying attention to the
dynamical-specific action of food’s
active substances, avoiding
antagonism among them which
would result in caloric
losses.
NON SMOKER/NO ALCHOOL
Factor
: Sensitivity to dust and wind, chronical eye irritation
Caused by sun light
reflection.
Below you will find a list of impaired
health symptoms the test person suffered from, as well as the evolvement of such
symptoms under extended daylight exposure.
As one can see, the symptoms in some
cases were notably reduced and in a number of cases they disappeared at all,
thanks to continued use of CARBON® MELANINA lenses.
Next to the symptom description, you
will find the explanation of reasons that led to eye-sight improvement of the
test persons.
WE
UNDERLINE THAT THE SYMPTOM APPEARED BEFORE USING THE EYE-GLASSES WITH CARBON®
MELANINA LENSES
3
PERSONS SUFFERED COMMONLY FORM:
Frequent eyeball reddening with
increased lachrymation sometimes only of one eyeball.
Two person after 1 hour’s outdoor
work in extreme weather conditions (average temp. –39°C / wind 65 Km/h / full
sunshine) had red eyes and sometimes thickened blood capillars with led to
disturbed eye-sight called “FOG” effect.
One of these three persons was astigmatic
at one eye at a level of 6/10 and had focussing difficulty when using telemetring
instruments, especially in the sunshine.
In this case the eye has to make much
efforts to read e.g. labels of different colours. The eye gets tired and is
subject to lachrymation which leads to painful ice building when temperature
is very low. Thus the person has no other choice than returning to the camp.
All the 3 persons and in particular
the astigmatic one, after continued use of CARBON® MELANINA lens eye-glasses
for a week, did not have such symptoms anymore.
SHORT-SHIGNED
PERSON (-8 DIOPTERS)
This person was in charge of data
processing at the base camp and did not
carry out outdoor tasks (as he wears special contact lenses). This person monitored
the meteorological computers and thus had to stay many hours of the
day near shielded terminals with large dimensions of 21”.
Due
to the chromatic variety of the colour monitor, the operator complained about
tired eyes and difficulty in concentrating himself. He often had to make a break
every 10 to 12 minutes of work.
The operator was given a pair of
normal eye-glasses with CARBON® MELANINA lenses. He confirmed that the colours
did not cause him any longer eye tiredness and that his eye-sight was improved
and relaxed.
PERSON
WITH XEROSIS AFTER EFFECTS
This person was effected by a disease
resulting in diminished pigmentation. Some time ago (approx. 8 month earlier)
the person had suffered from a congiuntiva problem i.e. a congiuntiva degeneration
called Xerosis, secondary type. This lead to cheratinization of the surface
layers and a dry, white look.
The reason for this was a Trachoma
due to “CHLAMYDIA TRACHOMATIS” which had damaged the mucous membrane but fortunately
not the cornea.
The contagion had happened during a
previously mission in hazardous area.
The therapy had consisted mainly in
antibiotics but as an after effect the person was for a long time photophobic
and extremely sensitive to the day-light.
The use of CARBON® MELANINA lenses
eye-glasses led to a quick improvement of this situation. The eye gradually
got used to an illumination level that was more acceptable and at the same time
did not alter the colours nor was it too bright although there was sun reflection
caused by the snow.
PERSON
WITH INCREASE of PHOTOPIGMENTS
High level of the photopigment “IODOPSINA”
which in full daylight moments leads to exceeding eye-sight brightness accompanied
by vision damage caused to the macula.
In this case use of CARBON® MELANINA
lenses helped the person to overcome the negative effects. The person was able
to stay outdoor fulfilling his work cycle of approx. 1 hour in the daylight.
CONCLUSION
Our technical analysis and experience regarding the CARBON® MELANINA lenses are still in course. The results known as of today are summarized above. We did not focus on the chemical analysis of such lenses which are made of micronized carbon and synthetic melanin.
We are not interested in knowing if
there are other synthetic substance employed, like “RIOSSALENE” or “METOSSALENE”,
in combination with micronized carbon.
Our Research Center just wanted to
test and evaluate the real efficiency of such special lenses manufactured by
INTERCAST EUROPE S.p.A.
For us it was important to compare the
data declared by the manufacturer regarding the light absorption (UVA-UVB and
blue-violet light).
The final results of our tests not
only confirmed the values officially listed by the manufacturer, but exceeded
also the expectations of our technician.
It is worldwide general knowledge that
damage to eye-sight is caused by interaction between the cumulative principle (exposure
time + energy) and exposure to invisible radiation like UVA, UVB and to visible
spectrum from 505 to 280 nm.
We
can state without any doubt and due to our test carried out not only in the labs
but first of all in the field, as follows:
1.
The CARBON® MELANINA lenses manufactured by Intercast Europe S.p.A.
allow an optimum outdoor daylight eye-sight even in the case of bright sunshine
and reflection. The lenses do not cause alteration of colours but allow a better
natural colour distinction.
2.
The radiation absorption level ranging in invisible spectrum and in
particular from 285 to 380 nm (UVB-UVA)
corresponds perfectly to the values declared by Intercast Europe S.p.A.,
manufacturer of said lenses.
3.
The radiation reduction level of visible spectrum of blue and violet
colour, up to approx. 505 nm, correspond to the values declared by Intercast
Europe S.p.A., with the exception of blue colour at 490-505 nm (thus near to
green) which is mainly minimized with an absorption factor measured by us of
98% declared by Intercast Europe S.p.A.
4.
Eye-sight in the visible spectrum is relaxed and does not cause tiredness,
especially with bright sunlight and reflection from ground (water or snow).
5.
We recommend the use of such lenses not only for persons of an age of
30 or above, but for all persons in charge of outdoor works and subject to bright
sunlight and radiation. We recommend such lenses also for operators in the mountainsand
at the seaside where sun radiation is high, as well as in tropical areas.
6.
There in no doubt that at age of 25 ( some say it is even earlier) the
natural Melanin level in the human body begin to fall i.e. our natural protection
gets less. On the other hand, the sun radiation level since 25 years has increased.
For this reason we recommend the use of CARBON® MELANINA lenses also for the
youth and in particular for the children, especially in the summer in the mountains
or on the beach. We must remember that our body accumulates the negative impacts
and this principle is valid for all ages of the lifetime. Our eye are very precious.
Our body cannot modify quickly itself whenever man damages the environment and
create dangers for our health. Our body cannot provide that quickly for a natural
defence response. It us up to us to help our body and prevent diseases as much
as we can.
INNOVATIONS AND SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS MUST BE TO THE BENEFIT OF ALL MANKIND AND IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE ALTHOUGH UNFORTUNATELY MAN CONTRIBUTES TO DAMAGE IT IRREVERSIBLY AND DOES NOT RESPECT THE CYCLES OF NATURE.
Wildon
12.01.2001