Fast Facts

• More than 600,000 eye injuries related to sports and recreation occur each year¹. 42,000 of these injuries are of a severity that requires Emergency Room attention.²
  
  
• More than 90% of all eye injuries can be prevented with the use of appropriate protective eyewear.³
  
  
• Sports participants using "street wear" (corrective eyewear or sunwear that does not conform to ASTM standard F803) are at a far more severe risk of eye injury than participants using no eye protection at all.⁴
  
  
• The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Optometric Association all strongly recommend protective eyewear for all participants in sports in which there is a risk of eye injury.⁵
  
  
• The following sports are considered a high-to-moderate risk of eye injury: Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Lacrosse, Hockey, Tennis, Soccer, Volleyball, Water Polo, Football, Air Rifle, BB Gun, Paintball, Boxing, Martial Arts, Cricket, Squash, Racquetball, Fencing, Badminton, Fishing and Golf.⁶
  
  
• One-in-eighteen college athletes will sustain an eye injury each season. The odds increase to one-in-ten for basketball players.⁷
  
  
• One-in-eight victims of severe eye injury, and one-in-twenty victims of less-severe eye injury, initiate legal proceedings against parties assumed to be responsible.⁸
  
  

• A market sampling in Michigan⁹ determined that:
  
  

  -	97% of high schools do not have a Sports Vision Program
  -	98% of high school coaches would be interested in a Sports Vision Program
  -	99% of high schools have never been approached regarding the establishment of a Sports Vision Program

  
  
• According to the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, 84.6% of children do not utilize protective eyewear in situations that represent a risk of eye injury.
  
  
• Increasing the use of protective eyewear in sports is a goal of the National Institute of Health's "Healthy People 2010".¹⁰