While dealing with basic eye safety guidelines in a modern workplace environment, you should know what activities may require eye protection guideline implementation.
As per some industry experts, about 750,000 people get job-related eye medical treatment every year, in the U.S alone. In the same vein, some safety experts suggest that proper eye-safety equipment can reduce this number of injuries.
This is because of several reasons. The first reason is that employees do not wear eye protection and the second reason is that people often tend to wear the wrong protective gears.
The first reason is easier to address by adopting strict company policies. Whereas in order to address the second reason you may need to have certain eye-protection gears like safety glasses, face shields, goggles, full-face respirators, etc.
Potential Hazard
- Projectiles
Machines can create tiny dust, wood, and metal shards, which may enter your eyes, deeply affecting them.
- Chemicals
Chemical products pose more risk and great danger for eye health due to fumes and chemical residue, steam, etc. You can avoid their effects using a special chemical mask that will enable employees to breathe in a harmful chemical environment.
- Radiation
Light and its radiation are important to maintain a steady flow of life. However, the workers at light manufacturing or other such units should wear proper eye safety gadgets to avoid ultraviolet radiations, infrared and laser beams, etc.
- Bloodborne Pathogens
Your eyes have a mucous membrane that can activate pathogens in your blood and body fluids. They can enter the body and cause major health concerns.
Employee’s Responsibility
You as an employee have a role to play in order to ensure eye safety and protection methods remain fully intact. Here are a few steps you can take:
- Inform management about eye safety dangers which you may be facing
- Ensure you have guards and screens in place prior to commencing your job
- Wear your eye safety equipment
- You should make sure you have clear and clean eye protection without any apparent damage or malfunction in its purpose
Safety Precautions
- Safety eyewear should be a must at all times whenever area hazards are present
- Nearest washing point should have an unrestricted access
Conclusion
You may have seen most eye injuries come from production and transport industries. Therefore, you should take care to protect your eyes and follow company guidelines about eye safety. Health safety and eye protection under basic safety guidelines is critical for any company, no matter how big or small it is.
