Thermal Interaction of Contact Lens Eyewear and 94 GHz Ocular Exposures

The objective of this study was to evaluate contact lens eyewear interaction with the 94 GHz MMW beam. This study was designed to investigate the thermal relationships between contact lens eyewear and 94 GHz exposures. Enucleated swine eyes were evaluated using a modified Miyake-Apple technique which allowed IR images of the interior of the cornea to be taken while the front of the cornea was irradiated with and without contact lenses. Anesthetized non human primates were fitted with contact lenses and exposed to 94 GHz MMW. Significant differences between contacts and no contacts were not observed at low exposure levels (6 J/cm2) for either porcine eyes or non human primates. At high exposure levels (12 J/cm2) the swine eye data from the Miyake-Apple view did show significant differences in heating for contacts on the cornea compared to no contacts. Nevertheless, The results have shown that, under the conditions studied, the wearing of contact lenses during 94 GHz exposure does not pose a greater risk than not wearing contacts. In real life exposures it is expected that alert subjects would blink, close their eyes, and flee the MMW beam long before tissue damage could occur from heating whether contacts were worn or not. The original document contains color images.