See It Coming: Eye Safety on the Job

 Welcome to this week's safety topic, personal protection, eye safety. It's very important to wear the correct eye and face protection in a workplace while working on tasks that have potential risks. Make sure you never see eye and face protection as a nuisance. One simple mistake could lead to a face injury, eye injury, or permanent blindness, too often overlooking something as simple as putting on a pair of glasses, goggles, or a face shield for the sake of saving time.

Or having convenience can result in a devastating injury. Some of the reasons you may need to wear safety glasses, goggles, or a face shield are. When working with impact tools, which could result in flying fragments, chips, sand, dirt, and other fine particles, you could be working with power tools such as drills and grinders, which could make hot sparks and have fragments fly towards you, which could cause serious damage to your eyes and vision and face.

You could be working with chemicals that have a potential for injuries and risk. For example, maybe a customer or a resident didn't inform you that they put a drain cleaner in a sink that's clogged. Before you arrived for the service call, and then you use a drain cleaner that has a severe reaction with what was already put in the drain.

Without your knowledge, you could be working with drywall, sanding. Possibly scraping a popcorn ceiling or mixing cement, and you do not want any of those particles or dust in your eyes, so make sure you match the protective equipment with the task. If you need prescription lenses, they're available. And if you have any questions, be sure to ask your supervisor or manager for guidance so they can tell you exactly what's needed and they may be able to refer you to a good source for those.

A little bit more about eye and face hazards. Oftentimes you work with chemicals and biological hazards, dust or mist, splashes of liquid, extreme heat, and cold flying objects. Impact tools or products and chemicals that could result in an explosion. For example, the last thing you want when plunging a toilet is to get any of that contaminated water on your face.

In your eyes, in your nose or mouth, so make sure you wear correct protection. There are so many instances where a pair of safety glasses or face shield save someone's vision prevented or significantly minimized an injury. So take it seriously. It only takes one accident to lose your eyesight or cause a severe or permanent injury.

So to be a little clearer standard safety glasses are not impervious to all impacts, and they can be removed, dislodged, or knocked off easier than eye protection, such as goggles. Safety glasses do not always prevent liquids from entering your eyes from a splash or chemical reaction. Safety goggles are a tighter fitting eye protection that completely covers your eye.

Eye sockets, the facial area around the eyes. And provide protection from impact particles such as fragments, dust, mist, splashes, safety goggles can also be worn over prescription lenses, and they're available with perforated, vented, or non vented frames. Safety goggles should be worn when working with liquids that may splash, create a vapor or anytime airborne particulate protection is required.

Of course, safety goggles have their own set of challenges as well, such as fogging, when in use, they often fog easier and faster than typical safety glasses. Face shields provide general protection for the entire face for a variety of hazards such as flying debris, chemicals, flashes, park flash, also UV radiation and extreme heat impact.

Rated face shields can be worn or typical face shields must be worn over primary eye protection such as safety glasses and goggles. Where there's a potential exposure to flying fragments, objects, hot sparks, potential splash, or extreme temperatures. Of course, there are limitations to face shields as well, so be sure to see your supervisor and manager for guidance.

In summary, take eye protection and face protection very seriously. Do not consider it a nuisance at any time, and if you do not have the proper iron face protection, make sure you get it before you begin the task. These types of injuries can happen very quickly and suddenly with no time to react and have devastating results.

So after listening to this, take a look at all of the eye protection that you have. Make sure that it's in good working condition. It fits the tasks and the jobs that you'll be doing on a regular basis. And if there's anything that you need specifically, make sure you get it. Make sure you seek guidance when needed, and most importantly, work safe and stay safe.