What Employers Need to Know

How To Tell If Your Employees Should Be

Wearing Protective Eyewear:

Eye Injuries in the Workplace

Eye injuries in the workplace are very common. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, about 2,000 U.S. workers sustain job-related eye injuries that require medical treatment each day.

Eye Injuries in the Workplace • While some injuries heal quickly, if an object

like a nail, staple or piece of wood penetrates the eye, it could result in permanent vision loss.

• Even minor eye injuries can cause painful recurring vision problems such as corneal erosion.

There are two major reasons workers experience eye injuries.

#1: Not wearing eye protection #2: Wearing the wrong kind of protection

Eye Injury According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly three out of five workers who suffered from an eye injury were not wearing eye protection at the time of the accident.

Identifying Eye Hazards at Your Workplace

The risk of eye injuries are higher in occupations that involve construction, welding, landscaping or handling chemicals.

The Three Main Causes of Eye Injuries:

#1: Flying Objects • 70 percent of eye injuries are caused by

debris or falling objects. • The most common source of these eye

injuries occur while woodworking, cutting, grinding, riveting and spot welding. Employees who do these kinds of tasks should wear safety glasses with side shields.

#2: Hazardous Chemicals • Toxic liquids, acids and chemicals can

splash up into the eye. Chemical burns may also result from rubbing your eyes after handling chemicals without properly cleaning your hands.

• If your employees are working with chemicals, require them to wear goggles and know the location of emergency eyewash stations.

#3: Harmful Light Radiation Long hours in the sun without UV-filtering glasses increase your chances of developing certain eye diseases. In addition to those who work outside, people who are exposed to manmade UV rays, like welders, can also be in danger.

Safety Tips: Easy Steps to Protect Your Employees

Safety TipsTo help prevent accidents from occurring, be sure to identify any of the above safety dangers in the workplace and require employees to wear proper eye protection whenever they’re passing through a high-risk area. Make sure to eliminate any hazards beforehand by using machine guards, work screens or other engineering controls.

Additional Safety Tips • Know your chemicals. Read and understand

the label and Material Safety Data Sheet for information on safe handling.

• Keep safety equipment in good repair. Equipment with dents, scratches and scrapes should be replaced. Also, check the manufacture’s guidelines for the life span of the equipment.

Additional Safety Tips Ask employees not to wear contact lenses. They may absorb splashed chemicals and concentrate the burn on the eye. It is safer to wear prescription glasses with safety goggles over them.

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