Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Eye Hazards

Eye injuries in the workplace are all too common, and all too costly, both in consequences for you and for injured workers. Just cast your eyes over these eye injury statistics from NIOSH:

• Each day about 2,000 U.S. workers have a job-related eye injury that requires medical treatment.
• About one third of the injuries are treated in hospital emergency departments.
• More than 100 of these injuries result in one or more days of lost work.

What Are the Risks?

There are a lot of ways workers’ eyes can be injured.

According to NIOSH, the majority of these injuries result from small particles or objects striking or abrading the eye.

Examples include metal slivers, wood chips, dust, and cement chips that are ejected by tools, wind blown, or fall from above a worker. Some objects, such as nails, staples, or slivers of wood or metal penetrate the eyeball and result in a permanent loss of vision.

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Large objects may also strike an eye, or a worker may run into an object causing blunt force trauma to the eyeball or eye socket.

Chemical burns to one or both eyes from splashes of industrial chemicals or cleaning products are common.

Thermal burns to the eye occur as well. Among welders, their assistants, and nearby workers, UV radiation burns (welder’s flash) routinely damage workers’ eyes and surrounding tissue.

In addition to common eye injuries, healthcare workers, laboratory staff, janitorial workers, animal handlers, and other workers may be at risk of acquiring infectious diseases via eye exposure.

Infectious diseases can be transmitted through the mucous membranes of the eye as a result of direct exposure (e.g., blood splashes, respiratory droplets generated during coughing or suctioning) or from touching the eyes with contaminated fingers or other objects. The infections may result in relatively minor conjunctivitis or reddening and soreness of the eye or in a life threatening disease such as HIV, Hepatitis B virus, or possibly even avian flu.

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Take Action to Prevent Eye Injuries

Workplace eye injuries are, of course, preventable. And the best way to prevent them is to require employees to wear appropriate eye protection whenever there is even the slightest risk of eye injury. And by "require," we mean:

• Train in the need for and use of eye protection.
• Post signs in areas where eye protection is required.
• Make sure supervisors monitor compliance with eye protection rules.
• Give employees positive reinforcement for wearing assigned eye protection.
• Discipline those who repeatedly fail to follow the rules.

The eye protection you choose for specific work situations depends upon:

• The nature and extent of the hazard
• The circumstances of exposure
• Other PPE used
• Personal vision needs

Eye protection should be:

• Fit to an individual or adjustable to provide appropriate coverage.
• Comfortable and allow for sufficient peripheral vision.
• Selected to provide maximum protection against the particular hazard(s) a worker faces.

Selection of protective eyewear appropriate for a given task should be made based on a hazard assessment of each activity, including regulatory requirements when applicable.

Tomorrow, we’ll review 7 essentials for protecting employees’ eyes on the job.