Abstract

"Glassblower's cataracts" are a form of cataract. They are formed by many years or decades of exposure to infrared radiation while working

in the occupation of glass blowing, or working close to hot or molten metals such with metal foundry workers or blacksmiths. Glassblower's cataracts are due to chronic exposure to infrared radiation emitted due to heating of glass or molten metal. The infrared radiation is absorbed by the iris and lens of the eye. This causes cataracts after decades of exposure.

Mechanism

The lens like any matter has the capacity to store incident photon energy by resonance absorption. If the photon energy corresponds to a specific absorption band in a molecule, absorption occurs as a binary event with a probability defined by the conformity between the incident photon energy and the energy gap available for the molecule to resonate. Ultraviolet rays (abbreviated UVR) and short wavelength visible radiation (abbreviated VIR) photon energy corresponds to electron configurations in matter with narrow absorption band. Infrared rays (abbreviated IRR) photon energy corresponds to vibration of molecules in matter with broad non-specific absorption bands. Absorption of UVR or short wavelength VIR photons therefore typically alters specific chemical reactivity, photochemical damage, whereas absorption of IRR photons increases vibration that is observed as increased temperature. Large important biomolecules such as protein tend to lose their space structure when vibrating, denaturation. The rate of protein denaturation is determined by a rate constant that is temperature dependent as described by the Arrhenius equation. Damage to biological tissue owing to the high rate of vibration damage is called thermal damage.