Tips to Prevent Work-Related Eye Injuries

Are you doing enough to protect yourself from work-related eye injury? According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), roughly 2,000 US workers daily sustain an eye injury that's serious enough to merit hospital room treatment. Most of these injuries are the result of small particles or projectiles shooting towards the worker's eye. Others, however, may come from tool/equipment kickback.

Impact-Resistant Eyewear

Let's first discuss the most important solution to preventing work-related eye injury: wear the appropriate goggles or safety glasses. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to provide workers with the appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE), and eyewear is no exception. If a job or task has an inherit risk of eye injury, the employer is responsible for buying and supplying the worker with eye protection. Failure to do so could result in a fine handed down by OSHA.

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Know Your Tools

In addition to wearing impact-resistant eyewear, workers should familiarize themselves with their tools. Far too many workers are asked to use tools and/or equipment that they have little-to-no experience with. In most cases, the worker can manage the situation without incident. In others, he or she may place themselves at risk for eye injury due to improper use of the tool/equipment. The bottom line is that workers should learn the correct way to operate a particular tool or piece of equipment before using it.

Give Your Eyes a Break

It's a common assumption that only workers in physically exhaustive jobs are at risk for eye injury. In reality, though, all workers have at least some risk of sustaining an eye injury on the job, including office workers. If you are forced to stare at a computer screen for eight or more hours per day, try to get into the habit of taking short breaks to rest your eyes. Constantly staring at a computer monitor can stress your eyes, increasing the risk of injury. This is easily avoided, however, by closing your eyes for 30 seconds at least once every hour.

Get a Checkup

Whether your vision is 20/20 or not, you should see an optometrist for an annual checkup. He or she will be able to take a closer look at your eyes, identifying potential problems so you can treat them while they are still young. Taking a proactive approach towards your eye health will subsequently reduce the risk of work-related eye injury.