January 26, 2009
Bangkok (Manager Online) - 7 percent of total Thai population or about 4.5 million people were color-blind, according to the Royal College of Ophthalmologists of Thailand (RCOT).
Assoc Prof Dr. Prin Rojanapongpan, RCOT academic chief, said color-blindness was mostly caused by genetic irregularity in male chromosome.
Color-blindness was also caused by almost all kinds of eye diseases such as glaucoma.
There are three levels of color-blindness: mild, average and severe. People with average or severe color-blindness could not drive.
Those who will be much affected by color-blindness are pharmacists and artists, according to Dr. Prin.
Dr. Amnaj Kusalanant, secretary-general of the Medical Council of Thailand, revealed the council had to re-consider the rules of diagnosis and the issuance of a medical certificate for driving licence application.
Color-blindness is the inability to distinguish some colors. However, color-blind people have an advantage over normal people in certain situations.Color-blind people are better at penetrating certain camouflages.
In addition, Monochromats may have a minor advantage in dark vision, but only in the first five and a half minutes of dark adaptation, according to wikipedia website.
