Protecting your eyes at work is essential to avoiding injuries. TheNational Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has alarming information that impacts most US workers. About 2,000 people get eye injuries at work each day. In 90% of these cases it’s likely that the severity could be drastically reduced had protective eye wear been worn.
Some of the common work injuries are related to chemicals and cuts by foreign objects on the cornea. Grease and oil, steam burns, infrared radiation exposure, ultraviolet exposure and flying chips are common sources of these injuries.
Safety eyewear is required in many hazardous workplace situations and contact lenses never can replace the protection offered by safety glasses. In most cases safety glasses can be worn over contact lenses. Prescription safety glasses are available in may stylish designs. However, only the ones that meet OSHA guidelines and American National Standards Institute are acceptable for protection.
Prescription safety glasses must meet requirements established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the American National Standards Institute to be considered valid for safety purposes.
Using computers at work is another major source of eye injuries at work. Some of the problems that can result are blurred vision, dry eyes, eyestrain, headaches and neck and shoulder pain. Poor ergonomics such as inadequate lighting, too much screen glare, poor posture and vision problems that have not been corrected are all contributing factors. Computer users that have uncorrected nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism can have vision problems when using a computer.
There are two major causes of eye injury in the workplace. These are 1) failure to wear eye protection and 2) failure to wear eye protection appropriate to the hazard. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 3 out of 5 of those in work related accidents were not wearing safety eyewear.
OSHA requires eye and face protection to be worn when injury is likely. Check with us at Lone Star Vision to help protect your eyes against the hazards you face in the workplace.