Heat from a B-B-Q can "melt" contact lenses.

silverdragon
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Heat from a B-B-Q can "melt" contact lenses. Sept 6, 2015 11:19:46 GMT

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Post by silverdragon on Sept 6, 2015 11:19:46 GMT

Heat from a B-B-Q can "melt" contact lenses.

How much heat can a Contact lens take before deforming, and wouldnt you get facial burns anyway before that heat was damaging to your eyes?...

Analysis: Please note that with the exception of a few minor revisions over time, the wording of this perennially circulating text hasn't changed since it originally appeared on the Internet in 2002. No names are divulged, nor, apart from the claim in the very earliest variant of the text that it took place in Malacca (a city in Malaysia), are we told where the barbecue incident supposedly happened. There's no good reason to suppose it did happen.

The general notion that plastic contact lenses can melt under extreme heat and become "fused" to one's eyeballs is even older, dating from the late 1960s when industrial safety warnings circulated in the wake of anecdotal reports claiming that welders had suffered severe cornea damage and blindness when their contacts were melted by the heat and/or radiation of electric arc flashes. Though baseless, those warnings continued to circulate well into the 1980s (see J.H. Brunvand, The Choking Doberman and Other "New" Urban Legends, W.W. Norton, 1984).

urbanlegends.about.com/od/medical/ss/BBQ-Melts-Contact-Lenses.htm

So how do modern contact lenses hold up?....

I suspect this tale to be bogus, but, I cant find any POSITIVE proof other than anecdotal.

Last Edit: Sept 6, 2015 11:20:16 GMT by silverdragon

-x-clacks-GNU Terry Pratchett----Release the Clan Mac Feegle, awae hame ye scunners.[p]Most of my Job is avoiding Stupid. ...You cant Fix Stupid. Especially when you turn Left at Hammerhead.

OziRiS
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Heat from a B-B-Q can "melt" contact lenses. Sept 7, 2015 6:48:32 GMT

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Post by OziRiS on Sept 7, 2015 6:48:32 GMT

Another good one

Some people might actually be staying away from contacts out of fear if they've heard this, so this would be very much in the spirit of the old PSA-type myth testing they used to do back in the day.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

silverdragon
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Heat from a B-B-Q can "melt" contact lenses. Sept 7, 2015 8:17:28 GMT

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Post by silverdragon on Sept 7, 2015 8:17:28 GMT

I personally can see it. [Edit... no pun intended, but, well, .... you wouldnt would you?..]
If the fire is that hot, you getting facial burns anyway.
I cant see the heat that melts contacts NOT doing some serious burns to the face... missing eyebrows are the least of worries here?...

Therefore, I would say that melting contacts although Valid, are not as minor a problem as stated, in that "ONLY" the contacts were affected.

I suspect barbecuing your face to the stage where the contacts melt is more serious than suggested, and DEFINITELY something you should NEVER try, Unless you are a Mythbuster with a Pig cadaver as a stand-in?... and even that is just to prove how stupid sticking you face that close to a fire is.

The myth is, after all, that JUST the eyes and therefore the contacts were affected.
.... With inference that the Contacts are to fault, and without them the eyes would have survived?.. THAT I call pure BS, because just by being there they are creating some form of shield to eye damage.

I agree Eyes are a little more sensitive than maybe other body parts, but, I suspect Modern contacts would be more resilient than just flimsy plastic, and then, more resilient that your eyeball without contacts.
Modern Contacts have to take a lot of wear, think how many times a day you blink for a start.

Last Edit: Sept 7, 2015 8:18:27 GMT by silverdragon

-x-clacks-GNU Terry Pratchett----Release the Clan Mac Feegle, awae hame ye scunners.[p]Most of my Job is avoiding Stupid. ...You cant Fix Stupid. Especially when you turn Left at Hammerhead.

OziRiS
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Minion

Keeper of the Hyneman's party wigs

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Heat from a B-B-Q can "melt" contact lenses. Sept 7, 2015 13:23:59 GMT

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Post by OziRiS on Sept 7, 2015 13:23:59 GMT

And then there's the little thing that eyeballs are actually wet, so in order for the contact to melt, all the moisture on your eyeballs would have to evaporate first. If you haven't moved your face before that happens, I don't feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for your parents for having a child who's that stupid.

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

the light works
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Heat from a B-B-Q can "melt" contact lenses. Sept 7, 2015 13:50:22 GMT

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Post by the light works on Sept 7, 2015 13:50:22 GMT

PVC that is soft enough to be flexible is too hot for ME to handle bare handed.

unless there is some form of UV reactivity in some contact lens material, I can't see arc welding as a hazard unless you're doing what you shouldn't be, anyway. we have guys who do entry wearing contacts - the biggest risk is accidentally blinking one out and losing it into the mask.