It is estimated that over 300,000 eye injuries occur every year in the American workplace. The financial ramifications of this are tremendous. The lost time, medical and worker compensation costs exceed $300 million per year. Yet the toll taken on the personal lives of those affected is incalculable. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed programs to help reduce eye injuries in the workplace.

Contributing Factors to Workplace Eye Injuries.

Wearing proper eye
protection. is the most common and obviously the easiest risk to rectify. Estimates put the number as high as three out of every five injuries could have been prevented if eye protection was used.

The next big contributing factor is the use of improper or inadequate eye protection. About 40% of people injured were in this category.

The Biggest Causes of Eye Injury.

Flying debris is one of the biggest causes of eye injury in the workplace. Whether it be sparks from a grinding wheel, objects thrown by saws or other power tools, or something dropping into the eye from above. Most injuries were caused by very small objects traveling at fairly high rates of speed.

Chemical exposure is the next biggest cause accounting for almost 20% of all I injuries followed by objects attached something swinging into the eye such as limbs, ropes, chains or tools striking the eye.

What Are the Most Common Places That I Injuries Occur?

Industrial equipment operators and craftsmen suffered the biggest rate of eye injury. There are potential hazards in nearly every industry but almost 40% of eye injuries occur among workers like mechanics, repairers, carpenters, and plumbers. Another third of the injured workers were operators of equipment such as assemblers, grinding machine operators, and Sanders. General laborers suffered about 20% of the eye injuries and almost half the injured workers were working in a manufacturing position and 20% work in construction.

Eye Injury Prevention.

Always use proper eye protection. OSHA rules require that employers provide workers with suitable eye protection. The effectiveness depends on the appropriateness for the hazards of the particular job.

The Effectiveness of Eye Protection.

50% of workers injured while wearing eye protection felt that the eyewear had minimize their injuries. Half of the workers also thought that another type of protection would have better protected them or prevented the injury altogether.

It is estimated that almost 90% of eye injuries can be prevented through the use of proper eye protection. This valuable piece of safety equipment is often forgotten until it's too late. Don't become a statistic if you're working in a hazardous environments make sure you have the proper equipment to prevent a possible life-changing injury.