Cheap Sunglasses: What You Don’t See Can Hurt You
Why should you spend $290/₤160 on a pair of cycling glasses when you can spend ₤20 on glasses that look exactly the same?
Because the $35/₤20 glasses won’t protect you from the invisible, killer rays beaming down at you from the sky. Paranoid, but true.
Ultraviolet radiation is out there. It’s invisible to the naked eye. And it will do you harm, unless you block it. Even though we can’t see it, we’re bombarded with dangerous UV radiation in the form of UVA, UVB, and UVC rays whenever we’re outside.
Cheap manufacturers are not spending the bucks on serious UV protection. You can easily find ₤20 sunglasses with a “UV Protection” logo, but that doesn’t mean you’re protected. To make the claim, a few of them block out UVB and UVC rays. But the most hazardous rays are UVA in the 300 to 380 nanometer range. Glasses that offer UV 400 protection eliminate that hazard. Cheap glasses don’t.
If you think you’ve got nothing to worry about in winter, you couldn’t be more wrong. Everybody reaches for sunglasses in summer, when the heat and glare are beating down. The irony is, summer has the least radiation of all. UV radiation is 17 times higher in winter. Seriously, it’s not the heat. It’s those invisible rays zapping you from the sky.
Here are some more weird stats about UV radiation:
- Snow increases it by 85%
- Water increases it by 20%
- Sand increases it by 17%
- Every 1000 meters of altitude increases it by 16%
- Black clouds decrease it
- Overcast haze increases it
- It’s 10 times higher at noon
Sure, there’s a big difference in ₤160 or ₤20. But there’s also a big difference in risking or not risking the results — like skin cancer, a suppressed immune system, eye damage, or premature aging. Besides, the scratch and impact-resistant features of more expensive glasses are going to make up the cost difference anyway.
And guess what? With the depletion of the ozone layer, all these stats are getting worse. You may not have bothered with glasses in the past. But that was then. It’s time to get protected now.