Did you know that over the past year, over 57,000 emergency hospital visits were due to workplace-related eye injuries? Eye health is something that’s easy to take for granted when we haven’t encountered any issues before, but injuries can have a profound impact, whether that’s pain and discomfort, or partial to complete loss of vision.
This is why it’s so important to take care of our eyes, both at work and at home — and safety glasses are a highly effective method of doing so.
The Importance of Safety Glasses
Our eyes are very sensitive and easily damaged areas of the body. Even those of us who have never suffered an eye injury can empathise with how unpleasant the smallest discomfort (such as accidentally getting grit or sand in our eye) can be, let alone more common complaints such as conjunctivitis. It’s therefore no surprise that eye injuries can be acutely distressing, and sometimes even life changing.
It isn’t only the physical effects of eye injury that can be profound. Those who have found their vision affected by injury will often have to adjust to a completely new lifestyle. While a full and happy life with partial or full sight loss is of course perfectly possible, the transition can be difficult to cope with. A person might face loss of income, a change in their capabilities, anxiety associated with their memory of the accident, or the stress of having to pursue compensation.
It’s therefore key that employers avoid adverse outcomes for their staff by instituting proper safety measures when working in any environment that could cause injury, including appropriate and effective PPE. This not only means providing PPE, but also ensuring their workers have sufficient information, instruction and training on its proper use.
This also extends to sole traders. In effect, sole traders are their own employers, making it equally important to take similar care for themselves as they go about their roles, and to be careful when completing tasks like DIY.
Hazards at Work and Home
People require extra eye protection in a variety of scenarios, including:
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Construction and industrial work.
Eye protection is vital in both construction (like our own road maintenance work) and industrial settings. Activities like machining, drilling, welding and sawing can all create flying debris, making safety glasses an essential piece of PPE. This is also true for anyone working with chemicals, as our eyes are especially vulnerable to corrosive liquids, meaning that permanent damage can occur rapidly after contact.
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DIY or gardening projects.
You don’t need to be at work to be at risk, and the use of power tools in particular carries a high risk of eye injuries. A garden strimmer for example might flick rocks or gravel into the air, while strong cleaning chemicals (such as oven cleaners) or solvents may also necessitate the use of safety glasses.
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Healthcare and laboratory settings.
Medical and care professionals will often be required to wear eye protection to guard themselves from bloodborne pathogens and other bodily fluids. Laboratories can also involve the use of highly corrosive and toxic chemicals, some of which can cause severe illness or even death when contacting the eyes or skin.
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Hobbies and sports.
People will often wear safety glasses when taking part in activities such as paintball, hockey, shooting or archery. Some arts and crafts also require eye protection, such as when using certain glazes in pottery, or working with heat or pressure.
Safety Glasses or Safety Goggles?
The choice between safety glasses and safety goggles depends on the level and nature of the risk involved.
Safety glasses are made with materials that provide high levels of protection against particles, impact and glare (which is important in environments with high UV), and can be tinted for those who work with bright lights. They are also convenient and comfortable for long-term wear, a perk of their lightweight construction and ventilation. This makes them a good choice for many low-to-moderate risk projects.
Safety goggles, on the other hand, are generally a little less wearable (especially when necessity dictates, they sit very tightly to the skin). However, they do offer full containment, which is essential in particular circumstances.
By creating a complete barrier against the outside world, safety goggles protect people from everything from chemical vapour to dangerous airborne particles. This makes them vital in high-risk environments, such as medical settings which may contain biohazards.
Whether you need safety glasses or goggles, you should always ensure that they are of a good standard. One survey has suggested that 40% of workers wear the incorrect type of eye protection – either because it is ill-fitting or badly damaged.
How PPE has Evolved
Humans have always taken steps to protect themselves from harm. In the 18th century, blacksmiths would wear leather aprons to resist stray sparks during the metalworking process, while miners would fashion masks to filter the dust and fumes, they had to work with underground. These efforts, however, tended to be piecemeal and motivated by the workers themselves, rather than being the responsibility of their employers.
As the Industrial Revolution got underway (along with a surge of workplace accidents due to unsafe conditions), PPE began to be developed in response to these threats. In addition to this, workers’ rights movements agitated for legislation to ensure they were exposed to less risk in their working lives, beginning with the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act (also known as the Factory Act) in 1802.
Interestingly, and perhaps in response to pressing needs across the globe, safety glasses were invented by several different people during a similar time period. The most notable however is arguably Garrett Morgan, an African American inventor who included safety glasses as part of his idea for the first gas mask. The mask was designed to protect individuals from inhaling harmful gases and smoke, with Morgan being motivated to create the device after witnessing the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
From here, several milestones were reached in the development of PPE and legislation, culminating in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Today, while accidents do still happen, the work of inventors and campaigners ensures that we are generally protected at work and safety-conscious at home, vastly reducing incidents that might otherwise occur.
Using safety glasses is a convenient, easily accessible way to avoid accidents and injuries when engaged in low-to-moderate risk activities. People should wear them in any circumstances where there is a possibility that their eyes could be harmed – and doing so is a simple, effective step to protect their vision. Your eyesight is precious, and safety glasses are a small action that can prevent life-changing injuries.
