Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House to support the initiative of the member for Sarnia—Lambton. We sit on the same committee and she always brings out some pretty good arguments. I am glad to support this motion.
Currently, decorative contact lenses are unregulated and considered a cosmetic. Thus, consumers can purchase these lenses on the Internet or even in retail stores. Studies have proven that contact lenses that are improperly manufactured or used without appropriate medical supervision can cause serious eye infections and even loss of vision.
The gift of sight is not something that we can take for granted. Furthermore, I believe this motion is put forward as preventive medicine. Given the burdens on our current health care system, every prevention is key in the fight against many diseases, including those which affect our eyes.
In January 2005, American legislators raised a concern about eye problems that consumers had experienced due to poor labelling and packaging of non-corrective cosmetic lenses sold right over the counter. The legislation they put forward is similar to the motion put forward by the member for Sarnia—Lambton and seeks to reclassify non-corrective coloured contact lenses as medical devices and allows the FDA to regulate the sale of these contact lenses.
The American legislation passed in July 2005 and was signed into law in November of that year. The American Optometric Association has applauded the introduction of this federal legislation.
Eye care professionals here in Canada also agree that this is something whose time has come. They agree that there must be legislation for the federal regulation of contact lenses. In their opinion, both corrective and non-corrective contact lenses should be considered medical devices and should be regulated accordingly.
The physical and other characteristics of those lenses are identical to corrective power lenses. The only difference is refractive power. More importantly, the very real health consideration associated with improper fit and the wearing of these lenses applies equally to both cosmetic and zero power lenses.
The legislators in the United States saw the importance of this and reached consent on it in 2005. I think it is time for all of us here in Canada to realize the dangers to people with these things being sold over the counter or on the Internet.
I want to commend the member for Sarnia—Lambton for putting this motion forward and we in the Liberal Party will be supporting her initiative.