Association of Technical Opticians

No we are not talking politics here, thank you all who took the time to send in the form letter and to write your responses to the April 25th Today Show. It looks like they did make a difference as the web article was changed to correct all the misinformation that came from their expert witness.

Web Article: Sunglasses

I call that a duck and run, and it couldn’t have been doen without dedicated opticians thanks guys/gals.

It has come to my attentionthat the Today show aired a segment chock full of inaccuracys concerning the differences between quality sunwear and cheap drug store sunwear. The expert they had, was an ophthalmologist named Dr. Belmont, who clearly was misguided in her information. A comment was made about optician checking sunglassses for UV protection at no charge for patients, which clearly devalues the services that some of us provide to our patients. I am appalled and have written a e-mail to the today show with my grievences and asked that they air a retraction and issue a formal apology. Link to video MSNBC Video

Dear MSNBC and Dr. Belmont,

I am very disturbed by the lack of research that went into the segment on sunwear aired on April 25th. The information provided was misleading at best and the expert Dr. Belmont did a poor job of differentiating the benefits and features of quality sunwear over cheap drug store eyewear. Some of the benefits of quality sunwear is polarization which helps to reduce the amount of glare seen when driving, boating and other such activities that would require your eyewear to perform at a level drug store sunglasses will fall short of. The comment that was made about opticians checking sunglasses for their level of UV protection, for free is both shocking and appalling. It is a service that opticians offer to their patients, but to have a patient expect the service belittles and cheapens the profession of opticianry. I would expect a retraction, and an apology to opticians as this one show will inevitably cause much grief for opticians across the country and will lead to patients losing loyalty to the opticians who serve their needs with quality eyewear. In the future when doing a segment on frames, lenses, or sunwear; the experts to go to would be the opticians who fit, dispense, and fabricate these items. A good contact would be the:

Opticians Association of America
http://www.oaa.org
441 Carlisle Drive
Herndon Virginia 20170
703-437-8780 Phone
800-433-8997 Toll Free
703-437-0727 Fax
oaa@oaa.org

If yu feel the same way and would like to air out your grievences, here is a link with a form letter attached Form Letter (where it says “Your name here” replace with your name”)

Don’t stop there let the expert Dr. Belmont know how you feel as well you can find her contact info Here (thank you GOS_Queen of optiboard.com for your research and info, and Cate Langley of OAA for the editing)