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Cleaning effects of eyewashes on ocular surface symptoms caused by air pollution in a single-center, two-arm, nonrandomized trial in Indonesia: first report from Jakarta study

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Abstract

Purpose

Air pollutants, such as Asian sand and particulate matter (PM) 2.5, have become a global concern for causing ocular inflammation and allergic symptoms. This study, as part of an international investigation, examined the effects of eyewashes for ocular damage caused by air pollution in Indonesia.

Methods

This was a single-center, patient- and-evaluator-blinded, parallel two-arm, nonrandomized trial. In Jakarta, Indonesia, 30 eyes of 15 car commuters and 30 eyes of 15 motorcycle commuters were recruited from healthy volunteers. After commuting to work, both eyes were washed with a commercial eyewash. Before and after eyewashing, eight items of ocular surface symptoms and four items of rhinitis subjective symptoms were scored using a modified Japanese Allergic Conjunctival Disease Quality-of-Life Questionnaire.

Results

Five of the 12 subjective symptom scores before eyewashing were higher in motorcycle commuters than in car commuters (p < 0.05). Motorcycle commuters showed improvement in the five symptom scores of “itchy eyes, foreign body sensation, eye mucus, dryness, and eye strain” after eyewashing compared to before eyewashing (p < 0.05). In all patients, sootlike particles and ocular mucus were found in the solutions collected after eyewashing.

Conclusion

These findings indicate that eyewashing for ocular symptoms caused by airborne particles may be effective in removing foreign particles from the ocular surface and relieving subjective symptoms.

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Data availability

Not applicable. However, the data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [T.M], upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

Funding

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan [grant number 20H04347] and an unrestricted investigator-initiated grant from Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to Tatsuya Mimura, MD. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 2-11-1 Kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-8605, Japan

    Tatsuya Mimura, Yuji Inoue & Atsushi Mizota

  2. Rohto Laboratories Indonesia, West Jakarta City, Jakarta, Indonesia

    Willitri A. Sunarya

  3. Rohto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Kizugawa, Kyoto, Japan

    Kazuhiro Tsuji

  4. Department of Ophthalmology, Fukuoka University School of Medicine, Jounan-ku, Fukuoka, Japan

    Eichi Uchio

  5. Ryogoku Eye Clinic, Sumida-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Kazumi Fukagawa

  6. Department of Ophthalmology, Keio University School of Medicine, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Kazumi Fukagawa

Authors
  1. Tatsuya Mimura
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  2. Willitri A. Sunarya
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  3. Kazuhiro Tsuji
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  4. Eichi Uchio
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  5. Kazumi Fukagawa
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  6. Yuji Inoue
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  7. Atsushi Mizota
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Contributions

Tatsuya Mimura: conceptualization, formal analysis, data curation, software, funding acquisition, writing, review, and editing. Willitri A. Sunarya: methodology, investigation, and formal analysis. Kazuhiro Tsuji: resources, conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, data curation, visualization, writing, and review. Eichi Uchio: supervision, review and editing, Kazumi Fukagawa: supervision, review and editing. Yuji Inoue: review and editing. Atsushi Mizota: project administration, supervision, review and editing

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatsuya Mimura.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This study was conducted according to the ethical guidelines in the Declaration of Helsinki and the Ethical Guidelines for Medical and Health. Studies involving human participants were approved by the Teikyo University Ethical Review Committee (#18-205, #19-211). A series of studies, including this study, were registered as clinical trials in University Medical Information Network for Clinical Trials (UMIN-CTR) (UMIN registration number: UMIN000013687).

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Not applicable.

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Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

Willitri A. Sunarya and Kazuhiro Tsuji are employees of a pharmaceutical manufacturer of eye washes.

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Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Mimura, T., Sunarya, W.A., Tsuji, K. et al. Cleaning effects of eyewashes on ocular surface symptoms caused by air pollution in a single-center, two-arm, nonrandomized trial in Indonesia: first report from Jakarta study. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 10967–10975 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-31982-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-31982-2

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