Champagne corks, fir thorns, contact lenses… Beware of the risks for the eyes during New Year’s Eve

Lack of vigilance or luck, the end of year celebrations are a period full of dangers for the eyes. Champagne corks or contact lenses, in particular, risk making you have a tearful New Year’s Eve.

If we regularly think of the cuts during the opening of oysters which end up in the “hand emergency” services, the ophthalmic emergency services also see injured party-goers arrive every year. A study published in the British Medical Journal, on December 20, we learned that the pressure in a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine is three times higher than that of a car tire.

The cork travels at 80 km/h and takes only 0.05 seconds to reach your eye. It is therefore unlikely that you will have time to close your eyes just before impact. “It’s incredibly violentexplains Doctor Sébastien Bruneau, deputy head of the ophthalmology department at the Rothschild Foundation in Paris. This is especially true since the size of the plug will really hit the eye directly and there will be no protection of the orbital mass. So we’ll have some real eye bruises.”

“If you’re really unlucky, with a bad combination of circumstances, you can lose your vision. Or even organically speaking, you can lose your eyeball completely and have to replace it with what’s called a glass eye .”

Sébastien Bruneau, ophthalmologist

at franceinfo

Champagne corks aren’t the only danger awaiting you this New Year’s Eve. Among ophthalmological emergency consultations every year : burning eyes from sauce, food falling from pans or squirting from the oven at children’s eye level. There are also risks with festive contact lenses, those that color your eyes : they are not always manufactured in optimal safety conditions, and therefore the source of infections. But Professor Jean-Louis Bourges, head of ophthalmological emergencies at Assistance publique Hôpitaux de Paris, explains that problems can also occur with everyday prescription lenses.

Some people “keep contact lenses on longer than they should”he emphasizes. “Especially after a successful party, they fall asleep with contact lenses on, and that’s where infectious problems can arise.”

“We see either problems of irritation which are ultimately not much and which we manage to manage, or downright problems of infections. And an infection of the cornea, that is to say the wall transparency of the eye, is a real problem because it can permanently reduce vision.”

Jean-Louis Bourges, head of ophthalmological emergencies at AP-HP

at franceinfo

Finally, because this period is one of all dangers, also be careful of eye trauma when removing your Christmas tree. A thorn in the eye, it may seem stupid, but every year the emergency services see “tree accident victims”.