I’m curious to know if, when you get smoke in your eyes, and it stings and maybe tears up a little bit, is it actually injuring your eye in any way?
Or is your eye capable of handling such incidents?
What about all those camp fires I stood over, back when I felt immortal and young?
Depends on your definition of “injured.” If you eat hot peppers and your mouth burns are you injured? If you get a rash from an allergic reaction are you injured? These are all topical irritations that may cause cell damage at some microscopic level but that heal and do not cause permanent damage. Smoke from burning wood is something your eyes recover from in small quantities. That stinging and tearing is your eyeballs’ message to you saying “Get me the hell out of here.” Products of combustion are not particularly good for eyes and lungs. I suppose there is some level of smoke exposure that could cause more damage than you could recover from without treatment.
I’ve heard that repeated smoke in the eyes has been suggested as the basis of Smoking-related Macular Degeneration (as opposed to good ole Age-related Macular Degeneration) but have no cite to hand (apologies for poor GQ etiquette).
Smoking is a risk factor for AMD and has been shown to have a causal relationship. This relationship looks like it’s established statistically; I haven’t been able to find anything that says whether the cause is irritation of the eye through smoke in the air, or systemic effects of smoking. AMD affects the retina, whic is at the rear of the eyeball and not directly exposed to pollutants.