Safety is key when it comes to fireworks season. To stay safe, people lighting fireworks or in close proximity to them should protect their eyes by wearing safety glasses.
Free safety glasses are available to the public and can be picked up at select Nebraska Medicine locations throughout the Omaha metro.
“Fireworks can generate a lot of injuries specific to the eye that can be serious because of their high velocity, because they are explosives, and because they burn at a very high temperature,” said Nebraska Medicine ophthalmologist Rao Chundury, MD, also an assistant professor in the UNMC Department of Ophthalmology.
The safety glasses were donated by Eye on July, a new non-profit started by Dr. Chundury and his family with the goal of promoting eye safety in Nebraska. Each summer, doctors at Truhlsen Eye Institute see many firework-related eye injuries that could have been prevented with safety glasses.
Around the Fourth of July, Nebraska Medicine ophthalmologist Chris Conrady, MD, PhD, also a UNMC assistant professor of ophthalmology, sees many patients with burns in or around the eye, as well as retinal detachments caused by fireworks.
Pick up glasses at the following Truhlsen Eye Institute locations and Nebraska Medicine clinics. Limit one pair per person while supplies last.
Truhlsen Eye Institute
- Truhlsen Eye Institute (TEI) at 3902 Leavenworth St.
Monday through Friday, 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. - TEI at Village Pointe Health Center, 110 N. 175th St.
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Health centers and immediate care clinics
(*Immediate care clinic hours are subject to change. Click here to view current ICC hours.)
- Chalco Health Center at 8343 S. 168th Ave.
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and *6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
*Weekends, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. - Eagle Run Health Center at 3685 N. 129th St.
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and *6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
*Weekends, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. - Bellevue Health Center at 2510 Bellevue Medical Center Drive, Suite 200
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and *6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
*Weekends, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. - Midtown Health Center at 139 S. 40th St.
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and *6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
*Weekends, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.