Glitter unfeignedly is the work of the devil . Despite its cheery design , few people actually enjoy spread out a Christmas card full of sparkle , unless you ’re really into sweeping up and vacuuming . There ’s also another reason you should dislike this aglitter stuff , on top of it being a serious annoyance .
A new aesculapian report in the BMJ Case Reports documents the story of a 49 - twelvemonth - erstwhile woman who ended up nearly blind and in infirmary due to a particle of the shiny stuff and nonsense from a Christmas poster .
The woman head to Singleton Hospital in the UK after suffering from a painful red centre and swelling on her palpebra . A visual acuity run by the ophthalmologist showed that her visual sense was also cut in her right oculus . Further examination also revealed a rather nasty lesion in her cornea .
gift with these symptom , doctors mistrust that the herpes simplex virus was the culprit . This far-flung computer virus can run to an infection known asherpetic simplex keratitisthat , although often a mild ailment , lead to over 40,000 cases of ocular deadening or blindness each year .
However , when physician further probe the wound under a powerful light microscope , they take in a small surface glisten back at them ( as you could see below ) . This actuate her store and she recalled opening up a Christmas visiting card covered in glitter . Somehow this speck of glitter must have flicked up into her cornea and triggered an infection .
After removing the foreign torso and receive a topical antibiotic discourse , the fair sex made a full recovery .
“ The wound may have been well misdiagnosed as a herpetic simplex infection by non - specialist for which treatment would have been topical antiviral ointment or else of removal and antibiotic drug , ” the study notes . “ It is therefore of import to always remember to inquire specifically about possible trauma ( however unlikely ) in any lesions of the eye . ”
As if the risk of sightlessness was n’t enough to detest this stuff , some environmental scientists are suggesting that glitter isdangerous for the environs . Much like their less glamourous first cousin , microplastics , these non - biodegradable flecks can easily drift into the sea and wind up in the digestive systems of mammalian , Pisces the Fishes , and crustacean all over the human beings .
“ I guess all glitter should be banned because it ’s microplastic , ” Dr Trisia Farrelly , an environmental anthropologist at Massey University , of late reason .
All in all , glisten sucks .
