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CHICAGO (Aug. 3, 2005) Because of recent eye health and safety concerns regarding the use of cosmetic contact lenses without the guidance of eye care professionals, the U.S. Senate on July 29, 2005, passed a bill declaring that all contact lenses should be classified as medical devices. If the companion bill in the House of Representatives passes (H.R. 371), consumers of cosmetic or plano lenses would require a prescription from a licensed professional to purchase the lenses.

Although cosmetic contact lenses offer no visual correction, until two years ago, they were categorized as Class II or Class III medical devices by the Food and Drug Administration. However, in April 2003, the FDA changed this policy, re-categorizing non-vision correcting cosmetic contact lenses as cosmetic devices, making their regulation much less stringent.

Legislation for this same issue was introduced last year and passed in the House, but was not presented to the Senate. Because of this, Prevent Blindness America (PBA), a national non-profit organization, challenged its affiliates and volunteers across the country to contact their state senators and representatives to urge them to pass the bills. In addition, PBA developed a special ?Contact Congress? section on its Web site which gave constituents the phone numbers, mailing and e-mail addresses of the legislators for their areas. In total, more than 300 letters and e-mails were sent as well as hundreds of calls made.

"We are thrilled to see our powerful grassroots movement of patients and consumers across the country make an impact on such an important issue," said Daniel D. Garrett, senior vice president of PBA. "Thanks to the combined efforts of professional organizations and volunteer groups like ours, we were able to take another step closer to protecting the eyes of all Americans."

Other groups supporting the measures include a wide range of professional, patient advocacy, and industry groups, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the American Optometric Association, the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists and the Contact Lens Institute.

PBA continues to engage Congress in several advocacy efforts designed to improve vision care for all Americans. In 2004, PBA helped to form the Congressional Vision Caucus to work with legislators to champion vision health policies at the federal level. Through this effort, the Vision Preservation Act of 2005 was proposed, (HR-2671), to strengthen vision loss research and prevention programs at both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and calls for increased awareness of vision problems by identifying key steps in prevention and public health.

To urge your Representative to pass the cosmetic contact lens classification initiative promoting safety, please call PBA at 1-800-331-2020 or log on to www.preventblindness.org/advocacy.

About Prevent Blindness America

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness America is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness America touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening training, community and patient service programs and research. These services are made possible through the generous support of the American public. Together with a network of affiliates, divisions and chapters, it's committed to eliminating preventable blindness in

America

. For more information, or to make a contribution to the sight-saving fund, call 1-800-331-2020 or visit us on the Web at www.preventblindness.org.

Prevent Blindness

America

Sarah Hecker
(312) 363-6035

We learned recently at the Leadership conference in New Orleans that the Board of Registration for Alaska will be disbanded by the State Government effective June 30^th. This action will unfortunately result in the loss of licensing for opticians in Alaska. Their battle to maintain their Board of Registration for the last two years has been a difficult one. Alaskan opticians are currently seeking alternative forms of recognition such as a registration system.

In July of 2004, a bill was passed requiring all children to participate in a vision screening test prior to entering Kindergarten. The OAM has been meeting with the authors of this bill in order to look into the possibility and interest of offering OAM members an opportunity for vision screening training and possible participation in providing this non billable service. If there is interest in our membership as we begin to formulate a training program, we can all look forward to education opportunities in the near future offered to members.