Yesterday we reviewed steps you can implement to get your workers to appreciate the importance of wearing required eye protection. Today we turn to the proper selection, wear, and care of eye protection.
Eye Protection Selection
BLR’s Total Training Resource: Personal Protective Equipment recommends that when you are determining what eye protection is appropriate for a particular task or job, keep these things in mind:
- Safety glasses with side protection are designed to protect against flying objects, such as metal or wood chips.
- Goggles are designed to protect the eyes from floating dusts, liquid materials, and chemical gases and vapors.
- Face shields are designed to protect workers from chemical splashes, hot slag, flying debris, and molten metals. Make sure the face shield selected is appropriate for the hazard.
- Shaded filter lenses are worn to protect workers exposed to potentially injurious light radiation, such as from welding operations or when working around certain laser equipment.
- Workers should be discouraged from wearing contact lenses when exposed to hazards such as dust, chemicals, and high temperatures.
- Consider purchasing prescription safety glasses.
- All eye and face protection approved for use in the workplace will be marked “Z87,” which means that it is designed according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for eye personal protective equipment (PPE).
Looking to improve PPE use compliance? BLR’s Total Training Resource: Personal Protective Equipment brings a new approach. Try it at no cost or risk. Get more information.
Eye Protection Wear and Care
Total Training Resource: Personal Protective Equipment provides the following advice for the proper use and maintenance of eye protection:
- Eye and face protection should fit comfortably. Eyewear should not pinch your nose or put pressure on your head. If it is not comfortable, employees are less likely to wear it.
- Eyewear should not distort or block your vision. If employees are experiencing dizziness or headaches from wearing eye protection, try another style or brand of eye protection.
- Just remember to put on eye protection before exposure to the hazard. This seems like an obvious statement, but many eye injuries occur each year because the worker forgot to put on the eye protection before starting the task that put them at risk.
- Keep eye and face protection clean so that your vision is not blurred or blocked. Soap and water is the most common way to clean eye and face protection. Special cleaning products can be purchased that contain anti-fog chemicals. If exposed to dust or liquid chemicals when wearing goggles, be sure to clean the top rim of the goggles before removing them so that any accumulations of dust or chemicals do not drip or fall into your eyes when the goggles are removed.
- Dispose of eye and face protection when they become scratched and distort your vision or become otherwise damaged so that they do not fit correctly or adequately protect against the hazard.
As with any PPE, OSHA requires you to train your employees in the proper use of eye protection. At a minimum, your training must cover:
- When PPE is called for
- What PPE to use for particular hazards
- How to put on, adjust, wear, and remove PPE properly
- Any PPE limitations—and how long the equipment should last
- How to care for, maintain, and dispose of PPE properly
OSHA is serious about this training. The standard states that workers can’t perform work requiring PPE until they demonstrate “an understanding” of what was learned “and the ability to use PPE properly.” Written certification must name each employee who meets those criteria. If employees don’t meet these criteria—or if changes in operations or PPE make the previous training out of date—you must provide retraining.
BLR’s Total Training Resource: Personal Protective Equipment has proven to be a particularly effective PPE training tool by appealing to workers’ emotions.
As they take a self-directed and self-paced journey through 88 slides, trainees are asked to imagine what it would be like to suffer the consequences of unsafe behavior. They’re asked to think about how an accident might affect their families. They’re asked to remember how their bare hands felt after contact with strong cleaning agents or how their hearing was muffled after exposure to loud sounds. And, in the case of vision hazards, the screen actually goes blurry and dark for a moment, to reinforce the point that vision is both fragile and priceless.
Try BLR’s Total Training Resource: Personal Protective Equipment at no cost or risk. Get the details.
Also on the program CD is a full catalog of reproducible supplementary materials, from training sign-up sheet, to quiz, to student completion certificate, and for group use, a bonus 28-slide PowerPoint® on PPE selection and use.
Safety Daily Advisor has arranged for its subscribers to evaluate the program for up to 30 days at no cost or risk. Just let us know and we’ll set things up.