Elements That Affect the Eyes

• Air will dry out your eyes and cause burning and irritation. Your tears are a cocktail of water, fatty oils, proteins, electrolytes, bacteria-fighting stuff and growth factors that regulate various cell processes. Air leaks in your eye protection will allow particles to get in to your eyes. Consider keeping eye drops with you to relieve your eyes and protect them from irritation.
  
  The face shield on a full motorcycle helmet is the most efficient system for protecting your eyes because it has no air leaks and is a good barrier against stones and other projectiles. This article would end here if everyone wore full face helmets, but some riders wear half and three-quarter helmets and, in some places, riders wear no helmets at all.
  
  

By the Numbers

• OHSA, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, USA, estimates that 90 percent of eye injuries can be prevented through the use of proper protective eyewear. It is this phrase "proper protective eyewear" that is the crux of eye protection.
  
  The next number that needs to be considered is the amount of fatal motorcycle accidents. Accounting of motorcycle accidents is not focused on general mechanical malfunctions or factors like poor performing eyewear. Motorcycle accidents are tallied by the number of fatalities related to the type of motorcycle involved in the accident. Supersport motorcycles have a four times higher death rate than cruisers and tour bikes. These bikes represent 10 percent of all motorcycles on the road, yet 25 percent of all motorcycle-related fatalities are in this category. Speed is sighted as the primary factor in 52 percent of fatalities on superbikes compared with 22 percent for tour bikes and 27 percent for cruisers.
  
  Understanding the risk makes it easy to see the benefit of anything that might contribute to your safety.
  
  

Proper Protective Eyewear

• Next to the full face shield, goggles provide the best eye protection for the motorcycle rider. Goggles are individually built lenses framed to fit tightly against the skin around each eye. Motorcycle goggles can be made with prescription lenses in them, just make sure you order shatter-resistant industrial-grade lenses. OHSA-approved industrial-grade lenses in protective eyewear are the third best selection. These glasses come in contemporary styles and can be fitted with prescription lenses as well. An advantage to the shop/safety glasses is that they look good and offer eye protection even when you are not riding (provided you are wearing them).
  
  The final procedure to protect your eyes is the eye examination. A comprehensive eye exam every year can help detect sight threatening issues early.