File this under "I really did know better" But, I was getting some dried chili's opened up to scrape the seeds, pitch the stems, and cut them up to grind into some homemade chili powder and afterwards realized that I hadn't first taken my contact lenses out.
They are the soft kind that you have to actually stick your fingers in your eyes and pull them off. Really painful experience after messing with chilis!
And my wife of 34 years says taking my contacts out for me is STILL not in her wife's handbook of things she has to do for her husband!
I scrubbed my fingers as best I could, wet my eyeballs with a bunch of solution, and went in for the contacts as fast as I could get them out...still cried a lot! Hope there aren't any opthalmologists on this forum!
Interestingly, there wasn't any problem putting them back in the next morning...no sting at all.
So, even dried chilis can still cause you problems.