--- title: Why Homeland Security Cares About Spooky Halloween Contact Lenses description: Those cat-eye contacts may make your costume, but if you buy them, you might be putting your vision at risk. 7135244 canonical: https://time.com/archive/7135244/why-homeland-security-cares-about-spooky-halloween-contact-lenses/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-10-29T09:45:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T09:50:43.234Z article:section: Health og:title: Why Homeland Security cares about colored Halloween contact lenses og:description: Those cat-eye contacts may make your costume, but if you buy them, you might be putting your vision at risk. 7135244 og:url: https://time.com/archive/7135244/why-homeland-security-cares-about-spooky-halloween-contact-lenses/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f245eabde022a18/698a925e186892c5c96ce253/154909137-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4992 og:image:height: 2808 og:image:alt: 154909137 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Homeland Security cares about colored Halloween contact lenses twitter:description: Those cat-eye contacts may make your costume, but if you buy them, you might be putting your vision at risk. 7135244 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f245eabde022a18/698a925e186892c5c96ce253/154909137-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) # Why Homeland Security Cares About Spooky Halloween Contact Lenses > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=35aa2d82-2794-495e-9688-a8bc168d0bd5&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 29, 2013 9:45 AM UTC  Beautiful Water Nymph or Creature Beautiful Water Nymph or Creature Getty Images—(c) ParkerDeen by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Oct 29, 2013 9:45 AM UTC Those cat-eye contacts may make your costume, but if you buy them, you might be putting your vision at risk. more Here’s the problem. While it’s easy to find decorative contacts online, for as little as $20, and some costume stores even sell them, the [Food and Drug Administration](http://topics.time.com/food-and-drug-administration/) ([FDA](http://topics.time.com/fda/)) and Department of Homeland Security are warning that those vendors are not authorized to distribute contact lenses without a prescription, and they could be fined or face further prosecution. Contact lenses are regulated by the FDA as medical devices and therefore cannot be sold for any purpose — whether for cosmetic reasons or for vision correction — without a prescription from an ophthalmologist, optometrist or a specially licensed optician under who works under an eye doctor’s supervision. (**MORE:** [Five Tips for a Healthy Halloween](http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/30/5-tips-for-a-healthy-halloween/)) Why is Homeland Security worried about colored contact lenses? Because many of these lenses are being imported illegally, and are slipping past federal regulations for safety, which means they can injure eyes and vision. That’s why the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI) is teaming up with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on a mission called Operation Double Vision, an effort to seize these counterfeit and illegal contact lenses. (Officials said they weren’t cracking down on the lenses over concerns about people changing their identities in an attempt to disguise themselves — at least for now.) In a [statement](http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1310/131023washingtondc.htm) released about decorative lenses, the Department of Homeland Security recognizes that [The Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act](http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/06/contactlens.shtm) (yes, there is such a law) gives [consumers](http://topics.time.com/consumers/) the right to fill their prescription at businesses of their choice, including online shops. But if they buy lenses purely for decorative reasons, without a prescription, they won’t know what they’re getting and they could be putting their sight at risk. When getting fitted with contacts, eye doctors measure the curvature of your cornea and prescribe the correctly curved lenses that hug the eye without squeezing or scratching the cornea. “If it’s too flat, \[the lens\] will move too much and scratch the cornea, allowing bacteria inside that can cause blindness,” says Dr. Richard Norden, a laser eye surgery specialist in Ridgewood, New Jersey. videoid=2750989650001 And if contacts are too tight, not enough oxygen flows through, leading to dry and more easily torn corneas, which can also invite bacterial infections. Contact lenses that are not FDA approved may also use dyes that could be harmful to the cornea. “Many of the places unauthorized to sell contacts do not explain how to sterilize contact lenses. People don’t know what they are getting and they don’t know when to take them out. If your eye starts to turn red, you must take them out right away to prevent early infections,” says Norden. (**MORE:** [17 Ways to Be a Meme for Halloween](http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/10/25/17-ways-to-be-a-meme-for-halloween/?iid=gs-main-moreontime)) If you absolutely must have decorative lenses for your costume, you are better off buying them through your eye doctor, who will custom fit them to your eyeball. You may end up paying more, but the prescribed lenses are worth the cost; once your cornea is scratched, you could lose your sight. In a 2011 [study](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21401905) published in the journal _Acta Ophthalmologica,_ researchers from Strasbourg University Hospital in France looked at contact wears who developed infections. They found that among cosmetic contact lens wears who developed a corneal infection, 60% ended up legally blind. Among non-cosmetic lens wearers who got infections, only 13% of ended up with significantly worse vision. The FDA warns that while eye doctors can make colored lenses and even cat-eyed lenses, but that anime or circle lenses that provide a doll-faced look are not yet approved. So when it comes to your Halloween costume this year, you may want to think about the potential risks as well as benefits of having the perfect outfit; your eyes may thank you. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7135244/why-homeland-security-cares-about-spooky-halloween-contact-lenses/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7135244/why-homeland-security-cares-about-spooky-halloween-contact-lenses/"},"headline":"Why Homeland Security Cares About Spooky Halloween Contact Lenses","datePublished":"2013-10-29T09:45:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T09:50:43.234Z","description":"Those cat-eye contacts may make your costume, but if you buy them, you might be putting your vision at risk. 7135244","url":"https://time.com/archive/7135244/why-homeland-security-cares-about-spooky-halloween-contact-lenses/","keywords":["Vision","FDA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f245eabde022a18/698a925e186892c5c96ce253/154909137-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0f245eabde022a18/698a925e186892c5c96ce253/154909137-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"154909137","caption":"154909137","creditText":"Getty Images—(c) ParkerDeen","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7135244/why-homeland-security-cares-about-spooky-halloween-contact-lenses/","name":"Why Homeland Security Cares About Spooky Halloween Contact Lenses"}}]}] ```