- Children and young adults are facing an epidemic of short-sightedness
because they spend so much time looking at television and playing computer
games, scientists warn.
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- Their research found that rising levels of myopia do
not have a fundamental genetic cause. Instead, a combination of increased
time focusing on close objects, allied to stress, is enough to cause long-term
changes. "As kids spend more time indoors, on computers or watching
telly, [they] are going to become myopic," Ian Morgan of the Australian
National University in Canberra said in New Scientist magazine.
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- Studies in several countries show the rising tide of
short-sightedness. Several explanations, including diet and genetics, have
been dismissed. Instead, lifestyle is to blame, Dr Morgan suggests. In
Sweden, 50 per cent of children aged 12 have myopia; by the time they are
18, forecasters says, more than 70 per cent will by myopic.
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- Myopia is caused when the eyeball grows too long, causing
light to focus in front of the retina. It cannot be cured directly, although
it can be corrected by lenses or by laser surgery to remove some of the
lens, in effect shortening the eyeball.
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- The Royal National Institute for the Blind says 12 million
Britons are myopic, and 500,000 have "high-degree myopia", which
can lead to retinal damage and blindness.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=539136
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