WHAT ARE YOU being for Halloween this year? The classic cat? A zombie bride, perhaps? Maybe you’re thinking of taking the easy way out with some grey contour and a pair of ooky-spooky contact lenses?

If that’s the case, you have to go back to the drawing board. Opticians are warning against the use of cosmetic lenses this All Hallow’s Eve, due to the adverse effects they can have on our eyes.

The Association of Optometrists has identified a growing trend in recent years of buying cosmetic contact lenses as part of Halloween costumes. 

The eye experts warned today that they have also identified growing complications associated with wearing these lenses, which carry serious health risks and are also illegal. 

AOI Optometric Advisor Lynda McGivney Nolan said complications arising from contact lens wear can result in devastating consequences with the potential to cause permanent vision loss. 

“Studies investigating the reasons for the increased risk of complications with these lenses has showed two important things,” she says. (A 2017 study in the US showed that the quality of contact lenses sold without prescription was very poor, with microbes living on 60% on counterfeit lenses and 48% of non-corrective lenses when they came out of the packet.)

“Firstly, cosmetic contact lenses are more difficult to clean and sterilise because of the materials they are made of and the pigments which colour them. This makes microbial adherence much stronger.

The second major risk is that the lenses are not fitted by a registered practitioner, so adherence to safe insertion and removal are often not practiced – resulting in a very high level of complications.”

Ms McGivney Nolan is calling on schools and parents to warn children and young adults about the dangers of wearing contacts and to refrain from purchasing contact lenses supplied through websites or costume shops. 

Not only is it dangerous, but it is illegal and evidence of shops supplying these lenses should be reported to the State health and social care regulator CORU.”

There’s loads of ways to give yourself funky, illusion eyes using makeup, without the risks associated with lenses.

Be careful this scary season – no costume is worth going blind for.

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