Study looks at the correlation of humidity, temperature, and air pollutants on dry eye disease patients

https://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/view/study-looks-at-the-correlation-of-humidity-temperature-and-air-pollutants-on-dry-eye-disease-patients

While this study only included 53 patients, they did find statistical significance in common parameters associated with air pollution. No great surprise that polluted air will aggravate dry eye disease!! But it does elevate concern that we need to take steps to ensure we live in clear, clean air. Our eyes are covered in our body’s living cells - and as such, this delicate, important, advance-life-form is truly the “canary in the mine.” For those unfamiliar with this analogy, coal miners digging many hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth, could encounter pockets of toxic or flammable gases that could be odorless to human noses. Miners would carry canaries with them, as these delicate birds would succumb to these gases before they would otherwise be toxic to a human. When the canary looked sick (or went belly up), then the miners knew it was time to get out of the mine. As a physician, scientist and fellow human with kids and grandkids to worry about, I hope we can control the human footprint we are pressing into the backbone of our world before we succumb to the toxins we are fast-creating.