Thank you, Madam Chair, and of course the committee.
I'd prefer to speak to you as an optometrist, although still representing the Canadian association, and not only as an optometrist but also as a researcher, as editor-in-chief of Eye and Contact Lens, which is the official journal of the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists, as a parent, and as a grandparent. This is an appeal. My statement is there without reiterating the eloquence of Pat and others about this issue and why it's absolutely essential that this bill gets passed.
These contact lenses, which are designed to change the appearance of the eye, are no different from any other contact lens in that they bring with them at least the same risk as does any contact lens when you apply it to the eye. But these lenses are different. They're different because we don't know anything about them. There are so many different designs, so many different materials that are used. We don't know the manufacturing standards for these lenses. We don't know how they fit to the eye or whether they conform or not. We don't know how these lenses are worn by people. There are so many unknowns. All of those bring added risk to individuals who wear these lenses without the guidance of eye care professionals, and that's very serious.
We know through research that we and many others have done, which has been published in the last few years, that patients who are instructed are non-compliant. Imagine people who have no guidance or no instruction on how to use these lenses and how they might think they can wear these lenses safely. They are not safe at all for that reason alone. These children, these adolescents, believe they're invulnerable, that nothing can harm them. What about when they drive at night with these lenses and these lenses are not used as corrective devices? A person who normally needs vision correction takes their glasses off and puts these lenses on. Whose liability does that become then?
There is a risk for developing not only serious complications. Microbial keratitis and its associated morbidity pale in comparison to what can happen if you have intraocular infection: the loss of the eye, enucleation, or worse. So there's every good reason to place these lenses in the hands of people who can dictate how patients or how people can use them.
The most recent research shows unequivocally that these lenses bring greater risk. People who are not instructed on how to use lenses and who don't disinfect or clean them or who use tap water on their lenses will unquestionably have far greater risk of developing serious ocular complications. So I appeal to you to pass this bill.
Thank you.