On 11/15/01 we received the following email. Note that our comments about this organization were not addressed. They just want to shut us up:
To whom it may concern.
This information is inaccurate and we would appreciate you removing our name from your website immediately. Thank you.
Daniel D. Garrett, Vice President, Marketing & Public Affairs, Prevent Blindness America,
500 E. Remington Road, Schaumburg, IL 60173, Tel: 888.331.2020, extension 330.
"Myopia is the most common, correctable eye problem. It is an hereditary condition. A child's eye normally gets larger as he grows, but the myopic eye becomes excessively large, long, and egg-shaped instead of round. In such a long eye, the retina is too far away from the eye's cornea and lens to focus images properly. A person with an average eyeball who is normally-sighted can focus the image of what he is seeing on the retina, whereas a myopic person cannot do this for distant objects without the help of glasses or other corrective methods. The New England Ophthalmological Society would like to dispel some myths about myopia:
1) There is no accepted scientific evidence to suggest that myopia or the progression of myopia is preventable by any method. 2) Eye exercises do NOT prevent or correct myopia. 3) Similarly, myopia is NOT caused or affected by reading too much, reading in poor light, or nutritional deficiencies.
There are a variety of approaches for correcting nearsightedness. These include glasses, contact lenses, and, in recent years, surgical or laser techniques. Nearsighted people should have yearly vision exams, especially during their growth years when advancement of myopia is expected. On rare occasions, myopia can progress quite severely and result in uncorrectable vision and sight problems. Fortunately most people with myopia have healthy eyes and good vision, with corrective methods. This fact should make the little nuisance of wearing lenses, or undergoing other corrective methods, quite tolerable."