This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Plano contact lens legislation reintroduced in Congress
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Legislation regulating cosmetic plano contact lenses was reintroduced in Congress last month, according to a press release from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
The bill, reintroduced in both the House and the Senate, would regulate both corrective and non-corrective contact lenses as medical devices, regardless of intended use, the AAO said in the release. Similar legislation was passed unanimously in the House in the previous session of Congress, but it never reached the Senate floor.
“The unsupervised, unregulated and unmonitored use of contact lenses is a recipe for disaster,” said Thomas L. Steinemann, MD, an AAO member and author of a case series report on several patients treated for complications related to cosmetic contact lenses. Two of the six patients developed “blinding complications” requiring lengthy hospital stays, the release said.
The AAO said most consumers are unaware that cosmetic lenses should be fitted by an eye care professional; most of the problems experienced with these lenses involve bacterial infections and corneal abrasions.
There is nationwide concern over the issue, according to the AAO. Florida recently declared it a felony to sell any contact lens without a prescription, the press release said.