France braces for 12 August 2026 solar eclipse as 1999 data shows 253 eye injuries

Upcoming eclipse revives old warnings

A solar eclipse will be visible on Wednesday, 12 August 2026, starting from 19h in the evening, 27 years after the total solar eclipse of 11 August 1999. Ophthalmologists and astronomy associations are renewing warnings about the dangers of viewing the sun without certified protection, citing documented cases of permanent retinal damage from past eclipses in France and Belgium.

Lessons from 1999

After the 1999 eclipse, which was total on a 100-kilometre band across northern France and partial across the rest of the country, Santé Publique France published a study in 2000, updated in 2019, documenting 253 eye injuries. Of those, 147 patients sustained retinal damage, 17 suffered severe vision impairment with visual acuity at or below 2/10, and seven people became visually impaired in both eyes. Franceinfo additionally reports that 106 patients presented superficial corneal lesions. The data was collected through an anonymous questionnaire sent to French ophthalmologists (5,400 per Ouest France, 54,000 per Franceinfo) and 500 hospital emergency services, following a campaign that distributed over 30 million pairs of approved eclipse glasses.

Among the injured, between 100 and 106 people reported watching the eclipse with the naked eye at some point, depending on the source. 74 admitted removing their approved glasses, and 32 used inadequate means such as photo negatives or smoked glass. Only four patients who developed retinopathy reported having consistently used approved glasses. The Santé Publique France report noted that a majority of retinal injuries occurred in regions where the eclipse was partial, and that people in cloudy areas frequently removed their glasses, mistakenly believing clouds block the harmful rays.

Personal testimonies of lasting damage

Wojciech Kubiak, a Brussels resident, briefly removed his eclipse glasses during the 1999 event to take a photograph through his camera viewfinder, a gesture lasting only a few seconds.

At the time I didn't feel anything at all. It was only afterwards, looking at a white surface, the ceiling for example, that I realized there were little black spots that had appeared in my vision.

Christiane, now 78, watched the 15 February 1961 eclipse from Marseille using smoked glass and photo negatives, the only protection available at the time. Days later, a bright spot appeared in her left eye, and an ophthalmologist told her the centre of her retina was burned with no treatment possible. She still compensates with her right eye today.

Why the retina is vulnerable

Ophthalmologist Maxime Delbarre, who published a tribune relayed by Ouest-France, warns that the retina has no pain receptors.

Unlike the skin, the retina has no pain receptors. When it is attacked by intense solar radiation, no alarm is triggered. No burning sensation. No immediate pain. Nothing that naturally pushes you to look away.

Delbarre adds that as ambient light dims during an eclipse, the pupil naturally dilates, and viewers tend to watch longer. Even when more than 90% of the sun is obscured, the visible portion continues emitting radiation intense enough to damage the retina. Olivier Las Vergnas, president of the Association française d'astronomie, told franceinfo that sunglasses are designed for landscape viewing, not solar observation, and that certified eclipse glasses let through roughly one hundred-thousandth of sunlight.

The sun destroys the retina, without instant pain. If you stare at the sun, it acts like a magnifying glass, the sun's rays are concentrated and burn the retina. Exactly as Hergé drew it in Tintin and the Temple of the Sun.