Snow Blindness

Snow blindness can occur in places that have very strong sun and lots of snow, like ski resorts, Antarctica, snow mountains, and many other places as well.

Snow blindness is very painful to the eye, it is caused when your eyes are unprotected by the UV rays that reflect from the snow or ice,

Snow blindness is like sunburn, but in the cornea of your eye. You may not notice until after a while.

Symptoms can have a range of your eyes having a bloodshot, it feels really rough and it slowly swells shut, in some cases you can become blind permanently.

To prevent snow blindness you should wear sunglasses that can conduct 5-10% of the visible light and absorb all of the UV rays. The glasses should have large lenses and also cover the side of your eyes, so that no light can go through the side. You should always wear your sunglasses even when the sky is dark and cloudy because the UV rays can seep through the sky.

If Snow blindness does occur to you, you can treat it by easing the pain with oral medicine. If you are wearing contact lenses then you should take them off. Don't rub your eyes, Wear the sunglasses until it completely disappears. There is also a special cream that can make the recovery speed up.

If your sunglasses get lost, or breaks. Then you can make an emergency google, which you cut a slit in dark fabric, or tape that is folded onto the sticky side. To avoid any reflection the SAS survival guide suggests that you should blacken under your eyes with charcoal.