Toril's petition against eyedrop preservatives

[mary kenny badami]

Dear fellow DETalk members:

Toril, a member from Norway, is participating in an endeavor through a petition to ban or restrict the use of preservatives in eyedrops.

How many times have we read here personal experiences from posters, often supplemented by medical/ scientific evidence,
that eyedrop preservatives such as BAK are harmful to healthy eyes, and even more so to already compromised eyes like so many of ours?

I went to sign the petition this morning, and was dismayed to see that there were only 24 signatures recorded on the English-language thread (now 25 = me) .
Yet the majority of posters on the DETalk website come from English-speaking-dominant countries, including the UK and the USA.
Assuming that you agree with the petition, don't be put off if you are not European-based.
Toril has assured me that all signatures will be welcome.
And if you didn't yet notice the thread because it's in a separate forum on DETalk, below is the link, and the starting section of the petition.

Yes, on this website we help each other through personal support and sharing of information,
but sometimes there are initiatives which may shape public policy and/or move companies to produce products designed to relieve our problems.
Perhaps this will be one of them.
"Preserve our Eyes not Our Drops!" < brilliant >

TEN languages . . . follow the link to your primary language . . . it takes less than a minute to fill out the form, and then you get a follow-up e-mail asking for confirmation of your signature.

http://associationgeniris.free.fr/in...joomlapetition

Object: withdrawal of preservatives from ophthalmic preparations to Preserve our Eyes not Our Drops!

We are three patient associations: Keratos (http://keratos.free.fr/), focusing on ocular surface diseases and lachrymal dysfunctions, Gêniris (http://associationgeniris.free.fr/) concentrating on aniridia and other rare diseases of the iris and Amalyste (http://www.amalyste.fr/) who supports Stevens-Johnson’s sufferers. We gather members from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Norway and the UK.

It is commonly accepted, on the basis of independent medical literature and studies, that the systematic use of preservatives in eyedrops, such as benzalkonium chloride (a toxic detergent, although by far not the only culprit), has a serious deleterious effect for all chronic diseases that require the frequent instillation of eyedrops (even in originally healthy corneas). . . .

< remainder snipped, but full text can be found on the thread >

[Toril]

...thanks a lot for the support Mary!! :-)

[mary kenny badami]

Well, English-speaking DETalk members, in just over a week since I first posted, the petition has accrued just eight, merely EIGHT new signatures via the English-language link.
Given the size and demographics of the membership here and the many personal and medical testimonies about problems with BAK and other preservatives, I am struggling to understand why.

Perhaps you disagree with the petition.
Perhaps you feel that you don't have enough information one way or the other to decide.
Perhaps you have a principled reason regarding internet privacy, etc, the consequence of which is that you don't ever sign any internet petitions whatsoever.
In all of which cases, that's okay by me.

But just in case you got distracted since I posted last, please take a minute or two to review the petition and consider signing it.

(Waving hello to Toril and her European colleagues from across the Atlantic Ocean )

p.s. If you-all don't regularly peruse the "Medical Literature" forum, please take a special look at a thread started by our member Scout in the past few days reporting an academic/medical study about toxicity of preservatives . . .

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/showthread.php?t=8838

[Z351]

Additional info

Perhaps you disagree with the petition.
Perhaps you feel that you don't have enough information one way or the other to decide.
Perhaps you have a principled reason regarding internet privacy, etc, the consequence of which is that you don't ever sign any internet petitions whatsoever.
In all of which cases, that's okay by me.

But just in case you got distracted since I posted last, please take a minute or two to review the petition and consider signing it.

(Waving hello to Toril and her European colleagues from across the Atlantic Ocean )

Many Thanks for you support Mary,
Maybe i may answer (or provide additional info on) some of the above listed "Perhaps".
If you feel you don't have enough info on the petition, you may ask Keratos France http://keratos.free.fr/ about it or simply leave your question here and I'll do the transfer.
Obviously, all emails collected will only be used to the purposes of this petition and will not be provided to third parties. May i remind that the two association in chage of this are non-profit registered association under the French law (Gêniris and Keratos). You may have heard of Keratos but Gêniris is an association on aniridia. Aniridia sufferers also suffer from dry eyes and glaucoma wichihc as you may well imagine is a terribly difficult challenge because most glaucomateous drops needed are preserved. So three association are in charge of this petition: Keratos and Gêniris, which started the petition and Amalyste that joined them. Amalyste is the French Stevens-Johnson's association by the way. A 4th association now support the ban, which is the AFGS, the French Sjögren Association.

At this answer who. Other association support this petition which seeks to ban preservatives or to impose a preservative free alternative for each treatement.

You may find additional info here

http://preservative.free.fr/

Another petition was previously launched by German citizens. It was deposited at the European Union.

Ok, I'll let you digest this info and come back later with more info from Keratos France (much more organised than we are in Portugal). But maybe Toril has some additional info on this and other groups that support the petition in Norway.

I can tell that an additional 100 signatures or so were collected in Portugal in writing ... so far. So may if you don't want to provide your mail maybe that's an option for you. I'll try to get a copy of the paper version for you.

So more later,
Thanks again Mary
Zed