Many tanning salons provide clients with “community” goggles – a practice that involves cleaning and disinfecting this eyewear between uses. While it’s one way to help ensure every tanner protects their eyes during a tanning session, what many salon professionals don’t realize is that it also creates a considerable liability. Cleaning eye protection properly – as in according to Environmental Protection Agency standards – is no easy task. And one mistake could expose a client’s eyes to serious infection, which is no laughing matter. So, unless you’re absolutely, positively, 100 percent sure that you and your staff are cleaning goggles properly, you should be selling each tanner their own pair instead!

They’re Out There!
If you offer community eye protection, you might need to familiarize yourself with the terms conjunctivitis, molluscum contagiousum and staph blepharitis. These are three of the more than 100 common ocular pathogens that could be carried on the eyewear you provide for clients. “What many people don’t realize is that the eye is the perfect environment for infections to live because it is a moist surface that doesn’t have much natural protective bacteria,” said Brenda Fishbaugh, Eye Pro, Inc. President. “Most of the pathogens that infect the eye are highly contagious and can easily be spread throughout a salon if goggles are not sanitized and disinfected properly. This becomes a liability issue for the salon, and they could actually find themselves getting sued if something such as this were to occur. It could obviously hurt their business as well, because if someone were to get an eye infection from a salon’s eye protection, word would travel quickly.”

Do you know the proper way to disinfect eyewear, according to the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency? If you don’t, you shouldn’t be providing eye protection to your tanners and offering to “disinfect” it, says Brenda. She and the Eye Pro staff, who visit and educate salons across the country on a regular basis, report that many salon pros who think they’re disinfecting eye protection properly actually are not. What many salon pros might not be aware of is that the Environmental Protection Agency requires solution used to clean eyewear as well as sunbeds to be mixed fresh every 24 hours to be effective, although Eye Pro, Inc. recommends salon pros disinfect goggles at the end of the night before closing, and re-mix and re-sanitize again in the morning when they open. This mixture must be tested each morning with a special quaternary or “quat” strip to ensure proper strength. The process doesn’t end there, either. To properly disinfect eye protection, the EPA requires salon pros to:

• Remove all makeup and debris from the eye shield.
• Soak eye shields and elastic bands in disinfectant for a minimum of 10 minutes.
• For the final step, eyewear must be rinsed with fresh water and dried to ensure that no cleaning fluid or water remains. (Most cleaning fluids can harm the eyes, and water can act as a breeding ground for airborne bacteria. The exception is Cal Care, which, due to its formula, does not require rinsing.)
• A lid should be kept on the cleaning solution container to keep ocular pathogens and debris out.
• Gloves and safety glasses should be worn while mixing solution.

“As salon pros know, time is a valuable resource, especially during peak season,” Brenda commented. “If a salon pro is in a hurry to disinfect eye protection – such as if they have a lobby filled with people during the peak season – it could be very easy for them to make a mistake.”

Why Not Sell It?
Here’s a novel idea: why not try to sell eye protection at your salon? You could completely remove the hassle – and liability – of trying to disinfect it yourself, make a few extra dollars and, most importantly, educate your tanners. And there are several different brands of goggles and disposable eye protection for salon pros to choose from.
Brenda says that tanners are more likely to wear eye protection when its importance is explained to them – more so than when they’re simply handed a pair of goggles and expected to wear them. “Education is the key to selling eye protection,” Brenda commented. “You have to explain to tanners why eye protection is so critical during a tanning session.” While moderate UV exposure can help people look and feel great, it’s not the best thing for their eyes. In fact, UV overexposure to the eyes can cause of host of damaging effects, including severely affecting night vision as well as color vision. “I’m sure many young ladies would not want to lose their color vision, especially if it would have a severe impact on career plans, such as fashion, graphics or Web design.”

Those Same Old Excuses
When stressing the importance of eye protection, salon pros should be prepared for a whole host of excuses from their tanners. One of the most common is the old I-put-a-towel-on-my-face-while-I-tan trick. “A towel has an SPF rating of about 5, at the most, which means it is nowhere near the level required to adequately protect the eyes,” Brenda commented. “The simplest way to illustrate this to the tanners is by telling them if water can pass through it, so can UV light.” Here is a list of other excuses tanners are likely to give for not wearing eye protection, and a salon pro’s counter for them:

Many goggles and disposable eyewear on the market are small enough to fit closely around the eyes. Also, this area of the body is hard to tan even when it’s not covered up because there isn’t much melanin in the skin around the eyes. Cosmetics, many of which contain SPF, tend to be the real culprit of “raccoon eyes.” Remind clients to thoroughly remove all foundation, concealer and eye shadow products before they tan for optimum results. Eye Pro suggests moving the goggles slightly during a tanning session so there is no defined line where the goggles have been.

Eyelids only block about 25 percent of UV rays, and are not adequate protection. As a test, ask your tanners to close their eyes while looking toward a light about five feet away, and pass their hand in front of their face. They’ll discover they can see the shadow of their hand, even with eyes closed. Now imagine what a higher-wattage tanning lamp positioned close to the face could do!

Scrub-A-Dub
If you’re going to sell eye protection, you must encourage your tanners to keep it clean. “Just because a tanner owns their own goggles doesn’t necessarily mean they keep them clean,” Brenda pointed out. “Oftentimes, tanners will throw their eye protection in their purse, gym bag or vehicle after they’re done tanning, and this exposes the goggles to various germs and pathogens.” The good news is it’s easier for tanners to disinfect their own eyewear than it is for a salon pro to properly disinfect a bowl filled with community eye protection. Here’s how to teach your clients to keep it clean:

• Wash eyewear in antibacterial dish soap. (Most hand soaps contain moisturizers, which could irritate the eyes.)

• Rinse goggles thoroughly in warm water.
• Dry goggles thoroughly.
  (Water can become a breeding ground for bacteria.)
• Keep goggles in a sealed, plastic wrapper, such as a sandwich bag, to help keep them germ free.
• Do not clean goggles with anything containing alcohol, as this can break down the goggles (This makes them become cloudy and offer less protection).
• If goggles become scratched or cut in any way, replace them. Bacteria can fester in those scratches, similar to what happens with a plastic cutting board.
• Replace goggles every three to five months, as you would your toothbrush.

To encourage clients to keep their eyewear clean, Brenda recommends salon pros make antibacterial dish soap available in their salon’s bathroom, along with signage outlining the proper cleaning method.

Give it a Shot!
As you can see, there’s a lot more to properly disinfecting eye protection than simply mixing some cleaning solution and putting it in a container. And if a mistake is made, the results can be costly. Perhaps it’s time you make a clean break… and start selling eyewear today?

-Original art by Laura Rapcka