Essilor Canada is working to ensure
blue light protection is more widely
available.
“We brought together our products
providing protection against blue light
under the umbrella of The Essilor Blue
Collection,” says Martine Ahier,
marketing manager, Essilor.
All Essilor lenses with a Crizal Pre-
vencia coating or Transitions are part
of the collection, as well as all Varilux
and Eyezen+ lenses with embedded
blue light protection.
“These provide wearers with three
main benefits, including optimal
balance between harmful blue-violet
light protection and lens clarity, up
to three times more protection than
a standard clear lens, and selective
filtration that lets essential blue-tur-
quoise light to pass through.”
Overexposure to the flickering and
glare from blue light may contribute
to eyestrain and headaches.
“Because we are living longer and are
increasingly dependent on artificial
light sources and digital devices, our
exposure to blue light is growing, and
so is the risk for discomfort.”
Essilor notes there is a growing inter-
est in blue light protection.
“Typing ‘blue light’ in Google shows us
this is of real interest with over seven
billion results appearing today when
searching for that information,” says
Ahier. “At this time, we estimate that
even if only 11 per cent of corrected
consumers have blue-filtering lenses
in Canada, 72 per cent of them are
concerned about blue light exposure.”
Sources of blue light include the sun,
TVs, smartphones, electronic devices,
as well as fluorescent and LED lighting.
26 OPTICAL PRISM | March 2019
Transitions Optical lenses work to
protect from all of these exposures.
“Indoors, Transitions lenses filter
harmful blue light emitted by artifi-
cial sources, such as digital devices
and LED lights. Outdoors, they darken
to help provide even more protection
from harmful blue light, intense
glare, and UV rays from the sun,” says
Isabelle Tremblay-Dawson, director
of business development, Transitions.
“Our most popular lenses, Transitions
Signature, block at least 20 per cent
of harmful blue light indoors and over
85 per cent of harmful blue light out-
doors. Transitions XTRActive lenses
block at least 34 per cent indoors and
88 to 95 per cent outdoors, while
Transitions Vantage lenses block
34 per cent indoors and over 85
per cent outdoors.”
Lenses that protect against high-en-
ergy blue light have been a priority for
independent Canadian distributor
Centennial Optical.
“We are seeing more consumers ask-
ing for more information about blue
light protection, and they have three
main concerns related to blue light:
eye strain, sleep deprivation and
potential long-term retinal damage,”
says Rick Leroux, director of market-
ing and communications for lenses.
Centennial provides a great selection
of lens and coating options for protec-
tion against blue light.
“Anti-blue light coatings reduce the
amount of high energy visible (HEV)
light transmitted by reflecting a por-
tion of this part of the light spectrum
off the front surface of the lens,” says
Leroux. “Ultra-violet and HEV light
are prevented from reflecting off the
back surface of the lens with AR coating
that allows the light to be transmitted
through the lens, rather than reflected
directly back to the eye.”
Centennial offers several coating op-
tions, including CHC AR Blocker UV,
as a custom coating option for all
plastic lenses.
For greater filtering of HEV light,
Centennial offers its CHOICE BluSe-
lect lenses.
“These are virtually clear lenses that
have blue light-blocking molecules
embedded in the lens material,”
says Leroux.
Centennial offers other lens products
for extended computer use and close
viewing of devices, such as tablets and
smartphones.