Dry eye relief in Newnan, Georgia

Dry eye relief in Newnan depends on the season. Summers are hot and humid, but air conditioning dries indoor air for months, and NOAA’s normals near Newnan still show more heating than cooling demand, so winter furnaces matter too. Spring adds a coat of pollen and dust. Keep vents off your face, take screen breaks, wash pollen off your hands and lids, and use a lubricating drop as labeled. Lasting symptoms are for an eye doctor.

Newnan’s climate by NOAA’s numbers

NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals include a cooperative weather station called Newnan 7 WNW, west of the city toward the Chattahoochee River. Its record gives Coweta County a clear seasonal picture:

• About 52.5 inches of precipitation a year, spread through every month. March is wettest at 5.37 inches and October driest at 3.00.
• A July normal high of 89.7°F and a normal low of 68.2°F, with about 42 days a year reaching 90°F.
• A January normal high of 54.4°F and a normal low of 30.8°F, and about 60 freezing nights a year.
• Snow is rare: the yearly normal is 1.7 inches.
• 2,965 heating degree days and 1,681 cooling degree days, so by NOAA’s yardstick Newnan homes still need more heating than cooling over a year.

NOAA’s humidity tables don’t include Newnan, but they do include Atlanta’s airport, about 40 miles northeast. There, relative humidity averages 81 percent in the morning and 55 percent in the afternoon across the year. April afternoons are the driest, at 49 percent, while August mornings reach 87 percent.

Why humid summers can still mean dry eyes

A muggy July afternoon on the courthouse square isn’t hard on the tear film. The trouble is that few people spend July afternoons outside. They move from an air-conditioned house to an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned office or store, and cooling equipment pulls moisture out of the air as it chills it. Add a vent blowing across your desk and hours of reading a screen, and eyes can feel gritty by midafternoon even though the weather outside is sticky.

• Angle car vents down toward your chest, not up at your face.
• Move a desk fan so it blows past you rather than at you.
• Set the thermostat a few degrees warmer; very cold indoor air tends to be drier.
• Go outside for a few minutes at lunch and look at something far away.

Heated air in a Georgia winter

Newnan winters are mild compared with the North, but January nights near freezing mean heat pumps and furnaces run most evenings and mornings from late fall into early spring. Heat pumps in particular move warm air steadily through vents near the floor and ceiling, which keeps a gentle draft passing over the face. Sleeping with a register aimed at the bed is a common reason people wake up with dry, scratchy eyes in December. Closing that register partway or running a humidifier in the bedroom helps. Winter heating and dry eyes goes into the indoor side.

Spring pollen and irritated eyes

Anyone who has parked under a pine in Coweta County in March knows the yellow film that covers cars, porches and patio furniture. Spring in west Georgia brings heavy tree pollen, and dry, breezy days lift it along with dust. Particles landing on the eye’s surface add to the feeling of dryness and irritation.

• Wash your hands and face after yard work or a game at the park before you touch your eyes.
• Rinse off and change clothes after mowing or blowing leaves.
• Keep car windows up on dusty spring days and change the cabin air filter on schedule.
• Wear sunglasses outdoors to block some of what’s blowing around.

If itching, sneezing and a runny nose come with your eye symptoms, ask a doctor or pharmacist what’s going on. Quell’s label doesn’t claim relief for anything beyond its stated Uses, and spring symptoms with several causes deserve a proper look.

Commutes, campuses and the airport

Newnan is the Coweta County seat and a commuter city. Many residents drive I-85 north toward Atlanta, and plenty work at Hartsfield-Jackson, where long hours in terminals or on the ramp mean conditioned air indoors and jet wash and wind outside. A 45-minute drive each way with the air on high can do as much to your eyes as a full day at a desk. Doing the drop before you leave or after you park, never while driving, keeps it simple.

How Quell is meant to help

The Uses on Quell’s Drug Facts panel read: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, which suits eyes that dry out in conditioned air. Use it the way the label says, Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, and keep the tip clean: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Georgia summers create a storage problem. The label range is Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), and a car parked at a Newnan shopping center in July gets much hotter inside than 86°F. Keep the bottle in your bag or desk, not the glove box. The label also says The eye drops have a naturally milky-brown appearance. This is normal and does not indicate a problem with the product.

Ordering Quell to Newnan

Orders ship from Brentwood, Tennessee, to Georgia addresses for $10.00, and orders of 3 or more bottles ship free. No delivery date is promised. Checkout works as a guest, and unopened bottles can be refunded within 30 days of delivery. The Newnan page and the Georgia page have more on local delivery.

When to see an eye doctor

Eye drops ease dryness; they don’t tell you why it’s happening. Figuring that out takes an eye exam with an optometrist or ophthalmologist. Book one if dryness lasts across seasons, keeps getting worse, or affects how you see. And follow the label’s limit: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours..