Beware Of Fakes!

First it was in Singapore. A worrisome story emerged from Singapore where over 100 boxes of fake colored contact lenses have been seized from at least five optical shops across the island. The lenses, which look authentic but have typo on the packaging, have been found to be unsafe and of very poor quality. Most shockingly, tests by the Health Care Authority showed that the storage liquid was not sterile and was contaminated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The Singapore News has a nice selection of photos to show the similarity (or rather differences) between the packaging of the authentic version and its imitation packaging. The incident came to light when some optical shops tried to exchange the fake products. Although other colored contact lens manufacturers have been victims to contact lens counterfeiting in the past as such, this seizure sent alarm bells ringing for popular colored contact lens manufacturers and seller.

Recently, something similar happened in Shanghai. The Singapore seizure of fake contact lenses pales in comparison with the latest find in China. The most recent case concerns a haul of 1.8 million fake contact lenses in Shanghai, of course colored lenses which are high in fashion. These are reputed to have a value of over $10 million street value, as none of the samples sent for testing passed the quality test. In this case there is no mentioned of brand name being passed off but there is indication that the whole operation long back before the bust. That would suggest that there have been a huge number of fake colored contact lenses in circulation, more so in the Far East. One does wonder if there was subsequent rise in eye infections because of fake colored contact lenses which did not pass tests. Another important question that how were they being sold? Through high street stores? It seems that if this sort of operation is being duplicated elsewhere then there could be a major disaster.

So next time you shop for that favorite blue contact lenses, make sure you buy it from a trusted and reliable source on internet. Beware of fake and cheap imitations!