John Boozman: “last Congress, myself, Mr. Waxman in the House, Senator DeWine, Senator Kennedy in the Senate, became aware of a very…”

“last Congress, myself, Mr. Waxman in the House, Senator DeWine, Senator Kennedy in the Senate, became aware of a very serious problem. The FDA had claimed jurisdiction over all contact lenses, and then in April of 2003 announced that it did not feel like it had jurisdiction over contact lenses that did not have any power in them anymore. In other words, there were lenses that were sold for the purpose of changing eye color, sold at Halloween to enhance; if you were going to a whatever and wanted to look kind of wild, you could buy these lenses. Up until then, everyone agreed that a contact was a contact, but when they got to looking at their statute, they were very concerned that they did not have any jurisdiction. As a result, these lenses began being sold at flea markets, began being sold at places where you get your nails done, and when they were sold, no one told them how to put them in and take them out, there was no effort at all to teach anything about hygiene, the disinfecting solutions that you needed to prevent your eyes from becoming infected. Dr. Steineman at Case Western Reserve about this time started seeing a tremendous incidence in eye infections related to these lenses. Let me just tell my colleagues about a couple of them. Here is an example of a young gal that was 16 years old. Her boyfriend supplied her with these colored contact lenses, did not have any power in them, so they were not regulated.…”