• EyeBuild bringing hundreds of Annual Meeting attendees together to work on Habitat-for-Humanity project
• New Eye Injury Data Released

NEW ORLEANS, LA – Over a three day period, more than six hundred ophthalmologists will join together to participate in the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s EyeBuild project, a partnership with the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity to build houses in the residential areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina. The volunteers will wear protective eyewear to highlight the results of a new survey finding that nearly half of eye injuries occur in the home and 75 percent of all injured did not wear protective eyewear. EyeBuild volunteers are among the more than 20,000 attendees of the Academy’s Annual Meeting in New Orleans Nov. 10-13.

“The Academy developed EyeBuild in response to numerous requests from our members for a community service project in New Orleans,” said H. Dunbar Hoskins, Jr., MD, executive vice president of the Academy. “Our past meetings here have always been wonderful events, thanks to the joie de vivre that makes the city unique.  We wanted to contribute to rebuilding New Orleans as one way of saying thank you for all the hospitality the city has shown us through the years.”

The site chosen for EyeBuild will be Musicians’ Village, which is in the Upper 9^th Ward, and St. Bernard Parish, two areas hit particularly hard by the flooding. The Musicians' Village, conceived by musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Bradford Marsalis, will consist of 70 single-family, Habitat-for-Humanity constructed homes for displaced New Orleans musicians and other qualifying Habitat partner families. Its centerpiece will be the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, dedicated to the education and development of homeowners and others who will live nearby.

The Academy will provide protective eyewear to all EyeBuild volunteers. The Academy’s annual Eye Injury Snapshot Project, a partnership with the American Society of Ocular Trauma (ASOT), highlights the importance of guarding eyes against trauma during construction and home repair, as well as many other everyday activities.

“Do-it-yourself projects are a common cause of eye injuries,” said Ferenc Kuhn, MD, president of ASOT. “The vast majority of those injured are not wearing protective eyewear, which could have prevented the injury from ever occurring.”

Some 475 cases were chronicled in this year’s Eye Injury Snapshot project. The project surveyed ophthalmologists, as well as emergency, pediatric, and family physicians who treated eye injuries during a one-week period in May 2007. Most eye injury patients were males between the ages of 18 and 45 whose trauma was the result of an accident. Significantly, 75 percent of those whose injuries were recorded in this year’s project were not wearing protective eye wear, even though doctors concluded that more than half of the accidents could have been avoided by taking that simple precaution.

“Just as you know to protect yourself from injury in a car by wearing a seatbelt, you should learn to wear protective eyewear when performing potentially dangerous activities in the home or at work,” said Dr. Kuhn. “In addition to helping the citizens of New Orleans, EyeBuild sends an important message to everyone about the need for eye safety.”

Nearly 2.5 million people suffer eye injuries each year in the United States. Simple chores, like mowing the lawn or housecleaning, can lead to injuries from foreign objects or chemical burns unless the proper precautions are taken. Even recreational activities, like playing tennis or hunting, can end up with an emergency trip to an ophthalmologist if protective eye gear is not used.

The results of the 2007 Eye Injury Snapshot project are comparable to those from the 2006 Eye Injury Snapshot survey. Among the major findings of the 2007 project:

• 75 percent of injury victims were not wearing protective eyewear.
• 84 percent of injuries were the result of accidents
• 49 percent of injuries occurred in the home
• 41 percent of injuries happened between noon and 6 p.m.
• 87 percent of patients who sustained injuries previously had normal ocular histories
• 73 percent of patients were expected to recover fully

Eds: Additional Eye Injury Snapshot data is available. Please contact the Academy’s media relations department.