Chinese woman's sight affected by over usage of smartphone

Beijing: A Chinese woman partially lost vision in her right eye because of her habit of peering at her smartphone in the dark for long durations, according to a media report today.

Liu, a resident of eastern Zhejiang Province who used to play with her smartphone for two to three hours a day in the dark, felt as if her right eye had been veiled for a week. The doctor attending Liu said she had suffered a partial retina detachment and blamed her smartphone usage in the dark for the problem, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"When the doctor covered my left eye, everything I saw with my right was distorted. Rectangular objects become elliptical," she said.

Zhao Bingkun, an ophthalmologist in Zhejiang, said staring at a bright screen in the dark for long hours can cause the ciliary muscle to contract, affecting its ability to accommodate changes in the lens when viewing objects.

Retina detachment can lead to blindness and ophthalmologists are seeing a growing number of patients suffering from the condition after staring at the screens of computers and handsets for long hours.

In November last year, a man at the online marketplace Taobao.com in eastern Fujian Province lost vision in his right eye after spending 10 hours a day staring at computers and smartphones.

In a country increasingly obsessed with staying wired, Chinese health professionals have long called for self-restraint and proper protection by smartphone and tablet users.