Experts from Chonnam National University Hospital in Seoul, South Korea recently highlighted the link between smartphone use and eye defect risks. Specifically, these South Korean researchers determined the association between too much and improper use of smartphones and children becoming cross-eyed.
The Daily Mail reports that researchers from South Korea observed the risk among children aged 7 to 16 years old. These childrean where also ones who were observed to be on their smartphones from four to eight hours each day.
According to the study excessive use of smartphones --especially when the smartphones are hold too close to the eyes -- has been found to cause damage to the eyes. Improper use in terms of distance was qualified in the study as holding a smartphone as near as eight to 12 inches from the face.
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The South Korean experts explained that in cases of convergent strabismus, or becoming cross-eyed, the eye muscles become accustomed to focusing inward. While this was a rare condition in South Korea among past generations, more and more cases are found to either be developing or existing.
Medical experts are able to assist with temporary cases. However, it involved requiring patients to discontinue smartphone use for two months -- which could be a problem for the patients themselves.
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Other cases of eye defects associated with excessive smartphone use are not so easily mended. BBC reports that not only does the eye-screen distance factor in, but the blue-violet light emitted by gadgets may actually lead to more serious damage.
Optician Andy Hepworth related that tests have shown a correlation between excessive exposure to this blue-violet light and the unnatural degeneration of the macula. This condition may eventually lead to blindness.
"Blue violet light is potentially hazardous and toxic to the back of your eyes," Andy Hepworth explained. "So over a long period of time it can potentially damage your eyes."
Such risk is not confined to smartphone use. Eye defect risks are also present in excessive exposure to television and computer screens.
