Eye injuries while working, have affected the lives of many on-site workers. Ensuring eye safety at work can prevent accidents and unnecessary medical expenses.
Rohini Mohan
Eye injuries may happen suddenly or may occur over a prolonged period of time due to continuous exposure to chemicals, flying particles or radiation. Every year thousands of industrial workers report of having injured their eyes while working.
The eye is a very sensitive and crucially important organ which must be protected at all times, while at work in a factory, workshop or heavy machine industry.
Here are some tips on how to maintain eye safety at work in the best possible manner. At an average, 1000 eye injuries occur every single day, thereby causing collateral damage to the worker's health, financial condition and job prospects.
Eye Safety Tips While at Work
Mandatory Eye Safety Signs
It is very crucial that all employers get Eye safety signs put up all over their workplace. These signs are very easy to understand as the pictures depict a worker wearing protective goggles or shield helmet.
The sign must be very simple to understand and must have an easy warning such as "Protect Your Eyes. Please Wear Face Shields". The organization must also provide a face shield or goggle to each of their workers at the time of joining the job. These equipment can be returned or placed in individual lockers after the day's work is complete.
Having written signs on the walls throughout office or personally made workplace safety checklist and pamphlets for workers, will ensure that everyone is aware of this requirement. Those workers who do not wear their protective eyewear must either be provided spare ones on reporting for work or must not be allowed to enter the workshop area.
Wear Protective Eyewear At All Times
It is the duty of the worker to ensure his own safety once the protective eyewear has been provided.
If in case you haven't been provided one by your employer, buy one for yourself. The reason being that, this way you will have your own protective eyewear and will not have to risk your eyes while at work.
You must wear your eyewear at all times while in the workshop, because flying particles and sparks from your table as well as others' tables can hit you in the eye, when you least expect it.
Wear Well Fitting Eyewear
Always try and test the protective eyewear before wearing it for work. The safety goggles ,face shields, welding helmets or face respirators must fit you perfectly.
They must never be too loose or ill fitted as this can cause harmful particles to enter through the gaps and injure your eye. This applies to harmful chemical gases and radiations which can seep through the gaps and cause severe damage to your eyesight and your health.
Work Appropriate Eyewear
You must be very specific about the type of protective eyewear you chose to wear while working. If your job requires that you deal with welding, metal sharpening or cutting, drilling, etc., you must wear a welding helmet.
This helmet will protect your entire face and parts of the neck. If you have to deal with chemical gasses, you must wear a full faced respirator helmet or mask. This will block the gasses out and keep you safe. You must always wear eyeglasses with side shields as these help protect the eye efficiently.
Get Your Eye Tested
Every worker who works in hazardous workplaces must get a yearly eye check up done, so as to analyze the health and condition of the eyes.
The doctor can run some tests to find out if any tissue damage has occurred due to exposure to chemical gases and debris, etc. After which you may wear prescribed protective eyeglasses either normally or under your usual work helmet.
The best way to maintain eye safety at work is to ensure that you yourself take steps to be extra careful while working. Do not wait for the organization to come to your aid, if they haven't already taken steps in this regard. It is also important that you let your co-workers understand the significance of wearing protective eyewear.