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Here is one for the ladies. How much on average would you spend on cosmetics every year?
Five hundred pounds? Does it depend on the brand name of the product? Well, the latest think tank figures from NPC have a worrying statistic that would indicate that in this modern world of retail, MORE money is spent on mascara than people pay for the care of their eye health.
The reported figures on the amount that is spent on eye research per annum is marked at thirty million pounds for the United Kingdom alone. Would it shock you to hear that the UK market for cosmetic mascaras is worth £130 million per year? And further to that the cost of sight loss and diseases of the eye here is estimated at costing us eight billion pounds?
The think tank figures have speculated that by 2050 up to four million British people will be affected by loss of sight or visual impairment.
The message comes that more charities be encouraged to work alongside pharmacies, private health care providers, high street opticians and the like, to improve the awareness of visual impairments and the availability of sight testing for minority members of society who are more vulnerable to sight loss, especially older people. It is feared that the commercial nature of the industry actually puts people off accessing a test and therefore the danger of conditions being missed are evident. The cost financially of increasing visual impairment throughout the country is high enough and let's not forget that the emotional cost for those suffering and those left to care for them is equally high and of equal importance.
The call is for charities to invest in the annual funding of eye research alongside money from Trusts with the Government footing the remainder of the bill.