freediving mask with UV protection

[Tdai5]

Are threre good masks with UV protection out in the market? My eye doctor told me i had a minor cataract and suggested me to take good care of my eyes with good UV protection...

 

[azapa]

Hi there. I have never heard of one, but also never had real problems with sun in the mask area, even after weeks of diving. This leads me to think that masks have UV protection already?

I understand your case is different, but hope my info is of use anyway.

 

[Simos]

Don't quote me on this but I was under the impression that decent masks do have UV protection

 

[Simos]

Actually I might be wrong, just looked up a couple of freediving masks that I thought had this and didn't see anything in the specs

 

[trux]

Ordinary glass is already a very good filter of UV light of shorter vawelenghts - it blocks over 90% of the light below 300 nm. It is partially transparent to UVA vawelenghts. So already with an ordinary mask you reduce the UV light considerably. You have then diverse tinted masks, of which some may offer better protection including those with plastic lenses (which normally filter less UV light in the clear form than ordinary glass).

So for example the Aquasphere Sphera, which is probably the most popular freediving mask comes with tinted screens too, and the specification claims 100% UVA and UVB protection. See for exampe here: Aqualung Sphera. Masks Masks, Scubastore.com, buy, offers, dive

 

[Simos]

I'd be surprised if most decent masks didn't offer UV protection because most swimming goggles these days do and that's with plastic lenses...

 

[cdavis]

Normally, divers wearing a mask are in the water, looking more or less down. Water is a decent UV absorber. Between that and the glass, it doesn't seem like UV exposure to the eyeball would be much of a problem while diving.

 

[Tdai5]

Thanks folks.. I think I will get a Sphera first. I have a Tusa Visio pro, bulky but with good spec of uv protection, for scuba use. And I was satisfied with my mystic untill one day my eye doctor told me the story. He said usually people develope cataract from the age around 50's. It might be part of the aging process. But uv would accelerate the process. He gave this example, just like frying eggs, you know.. The egg white will gradually become white from crystal transparent as heating up. Of course our crystalline lens won’t be cooked so fast as an egg. It might take 20,30,40 or 50 years… Well.. I guess his egg example would pump up the uv protection market. It works for me… By the way I am 44 now. I guess my eyes age faster then regular people or they are just being cooked faster by the sun..