What Causes Colorblindness by Pete

There are about 250 million people worldwide who suffer from color blindness. I tried to find out what causes color blindness. Color blindness is when somebody cannot see certain colors because of different reasons. Here are some of the ways people can get color blind and what causes it.

Causes of Color Blindness

Color blindness is usually genetic. Many more men are color blind than women. This is because the color blind cell is in the X chromosome, which the mother always gives to her kid(s). The mother is called “the carrier,” because she carries the X chromosome to her kid(s). The mother who gives the color blind gene to her kid(s) is usually not color blind herself.

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Another cause of color blindness is industrial chemicals. Chemicals including carbon monoxide, carbon disulphide, and other chemicals containing lead can lead to color blindness. Strokes can also lead to certain types of color blindness.

Medications and drugs can also lead to color blindness. Some of these medications are antibiotics, barbitutes, anti-tuberculosis drugs, high blood pressure medications, and some variations of nervous disorder medications.   

The last thing that causes color blindness can occur because of diseases like diabetes, and almost every form of eye disease. Glaucoma, cataracts, optic nerve disease, and macular degeneration. All different kinds of eye diseases. Color blindness, no matter what the cause, should never get worse. It should not get better either without special treatments.

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Cone Cells And Rod Cells

 The retina (a thin layer of tissue covering the inner surface of the eye) of an eye has two parts: cone cells, and rods. Rods help your eye adjust to darkness, and to bright lights. The cones cells let you see different colors. There are three different kinds of cone cells; one type sees blue light, the second type sees green lights, and the third kind of cone cell sees red light.

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Each type of cone cell is sensitive to different light wavelengths. Those certain light wavelengths cause one of the three kinds of cone cell to stimulate and get excited. When the cone cells get excited they shake back and forth rapidly and you see a color. So if you see a purple leaf on a tree outside, that’s because 2 wavelengths are emitting from that leaf. One of those wavelengths stimulates the blue cone cells, and the other wavelength stimulates the red cone cells. All of those blue and red cone cells shaking around together make your eyes see the leaf as purple. That’s where the color blind cell kicks in. The color blind cell causes one or most of the cone cells faulty. So if you’re color blind, you could see that purple leaf as a blue leaf because your red cone cell is faulty.

That is what causes color blindness, and color blindness’s effects.

References:
ColorBlindAwareness.org “What causes color blindness” http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/causes-of-colour-blindness/

            

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