Euro Coins Test for Color Blindness

Chris writes "Three-hundred million Europeans now have an easy way to check whether or not they suffer from red-green color blindness according to optics.org. Spanish researchers are suggesting that the new Euro coins, introduced in January of this year across most of Europe, could be used as an instant test for red-green color blindness. Color blindness sufferers confuse reds, yellows and greens. Traditional tests to detect deficiency in color vision are difficult to evaluate or calibrate. But in trials comparing 5 cent coins, which have a reddish tone, with 10 and 20 cent coins, which have a yellowish tone, color-blind observers were incapable of separating them while normal observers achieved the operation in seconds."

Comments

Missing the point

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

The article wasn't claiming that the Euro was poorly designed. The coins are easily identified if you look at the front, but the flip side (obverse side in the article text) of two coins are strikingly similar in every aspect but red-green hue. Ok, that and the big "5" on the right vs the big "20" on the left.

From the article:

The population which is affected by some type of congenital red-green anomaly has been estimated by several authors as 8% of men and 0.4% of women in Europe and North-America [2].
2. J. Pokorny, V. C. Smith, G. Verriest, A. J. L. G. Pinkers, Congenital and acquired color vision defects, (Grune and Stranton, New York, 1979).

The point is that the vast majority of the population will never get in to have an opthalmologist evaluate their color vision, but now anyone can perform their own screening with a little pocket change.
Since one of the causes of R/G anomolies is undiagnosed Multiple Sclerosis, this is A Good Thing.