[mochaccino]

If anyone start's looking into this online, they'll probably find a bunch of horror stories about people accidentally putting peroxide based contact lens cleaner into their eyes. It apparently visibly eats away at the cornea in the worst case scenario. Based on all the ALL CAPS multiple exclamation point warnings that I've seen on places like Yahoo Answers, lots of people seem to assume that regular peroxide would act the same way. What they don't seem to understand is that contact lens cleaner also contains phosphoric acid, so it's really not fair to compare the two. It's specifically designed to eat through organic proteins, so no wonder it does so much damage. Not that hydrogen peroxide is totally safe on it's own, but it seems to have everything to do with the dilution strength. Most of the horrifying warnings about hydrogen peroxide only apply to the stronger concentrations used for hair dye and such. Lots of people don't seem to understand that. Mind you, I'm not saying that 3% peroxide is safe for the eyes. I'm just saying that people are failing to differentiate wound peroxide from hair dye, industrial peroxide, and contact lens cleaner. Obviously the other forms of hydrogen peroxide are a hell of a lot stronger and more dangerous then the kind you'd use on cuts.

As far as I can tell the worst thing that could happen from 3% peroxide in the eye is that your eyes would be extremely irritated. Apparently it hurts much worse than I would have imagined, but 3% peroxide still won't cause permanent damage or send you to the hospital. All you have to do is rinse it out really well and then everything's fine. Unfortunately, I still really have no idea what concentration would be safe. I just read some sort of industry warning paper that says that even 1% peroxide is somewhat painful and too strong for the eyes. I wish I knew more about exactly how much peroxide is produced by honey. I'm sure it's a vanishingly small amount. Ktani (the author of the honey lightening post I linked to) might have posted some links to studies that say how much is actually produced. If I could dilute hyrogen peroxide until it's as weak as the strongest honeys, I'm sure it would be safe. At least I haven't heard a valid reason why it wouldn't be, but that doesn't mean that there isn't one. It's gonna take me a while to figure this out.