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Hi everyone,
I know there will be no simple answer to this one, but I'd love to know if anyone has had any experiences which could help. First a little about my eyes:
I have a set regime which works so well that most of the time I can keep my dry eye problem to the level of nothing more than minor irritation, sometimes they even feel perfect. No air con, no central heating, humidifiers for the winter etc etc. But if I go out on a windy/dusty day, or sit in a dry air con environment for a couple of hours, then go downhill really quickly, resulting in burning pain for anything from 4-5 days to a couple of weeks. Pollen in the summer can have the same effect (I'm in northern England).
Basically I have been busy planning the trip of a lifetime to China. We plan to visit Beijing, Xi'an (terracotta warriors), Chengdu, Guilin area and Hong Kong. I knew it would be necessary to avoid Spring because Beijing gets dust storms then. But it's only just occurred to me that China is just about the most polluted country on the planet. I have been to Mumbai in India and was ok, but all Chinese cities are many times more polluted than there. It's hard to get precise figures but Beijing seems to have something like 5 times the pollution level of UK cities for the small particle type pollutants - the sort that I would imagine would affect my eyes. I do have good goggles but I don't think I could wear them 24/7 and in any case despite the air vents they do mist up a fair bit.
So, has anyone by any chance been to China or anywhere else where pollutants are high, and how did you fare? Advise really appreciated. I don't want to disappoint the family but don't want weeks of painful eyes either. Many thanks.
I know there will be no simple answer to this one, but I'd love to know if anyone has had any experiences which could help. First a little about my eyes:
I have a set regime which works so well that most of the time I can keep my dry eye problem to the level of nothing more than minor irritation, sometimes they even feel perfect. No air con, no central heating, humidifiers for the winter etc etc. But if I go out on a windy/dusty day, or sit in a dry air con environment for a couple of hours, then go downhill really quickly, resulting in burning pain for anything from 4-5 days to a couple of weeks. Pollen in the summer can have the same effect (I'm in northern England).
Basically I have been busy planning the trip of a lifetime to China. We plan to visit Beijing, Xi'an (terracotta warriors), Chengdu, Guilin area and Hong Kong. I knew it would be necessary to avoid Spring because Beijing gets dust storms then. But it's only just occurred to me that China is just about the most polluted country on the planet. I have been to Mumbai in India and was ok, but all Chinese cities are many times more polluted than there. It's hard to get precise figures but Beijing seems to have something like 5 times the pollution level of UK cities for the small particle type pollutants - the sort that I would imagine would affect my eyes. I do have good goggles but I don't think I could wear them 24/7 and in any case despite the air vents they do mist up a fair bit.
So, has anyone by any chance been to China or anywhere else where pollutants are high, and how did you fare? Advise really appreciated. I don't want to disappoint the family but don't want weeks of painful eyes either. Many thanks.