Employees debating whether to invest in voluntary vision benefits might want to stopdebating and jump on the bandwagon — especially if they have teenswho wear contacts.

A new Today report points out that teens have a bad record whenit comes to eye infections from not taking proper care of theircontact lenses. In fact, according to a study from the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention, teenagers and young adults indulgein behaviors such as poor hygiene, failure to replace lenses onschedule, and failure to replace lens cases—as well as other riskybehavior such as swimming or showering with contacts in. And all ofthose can lead to serious eye infections, some of which can evenlead to blindness.

The CDC study of more than 6,000 people aged 12 and older foundthat more than 80 percent of all people have at least one habitknown to raise the risk of eye infections, the report says. But teens areactually not quite as bad as adults in their 20s, the CDC teamfinds, possibly because teens are still living at home where adultscan supervise them.

According to the study, “Young adults have been reported to havepoor planning and a more impulsive lifestyle in relation to contactlens hygiene, possibly related to crowded living conditions (e.g.,dormitories, living with roommates and sharing bathrooms), alcoholconsumption and attitudes conducive to taking greaterrisks.”

This most recent study follows up a 2015 effort that foundmillions of contact lens wearers had poor contact lens hygiene atleast some of the time, resulting in nearly a third having to go tothe eye doctor as a result.

Among the bad behaviors noted in the study are sleeping withcontacts in, especially if the lenses aren’t approved for overnightwear (30 percent of adolescents admit to this) and failing to seean eye doctor at least once a year (44 percent confess to thisone). More than 40 percent don’t replace lens storage cases asoften as recommended, while more than half admit to not replacinglenses as often as recommended.