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The Importance Of Protecting Your Vision In The Workplace

March 14, 2014

Be sure to keep your eyes safe during Workplace Eye Wellness Month and beyond.

When most people think about unfortunate eye injuries, they often picture regrettable accidents that happen during high-impact sports games or when playing around during physical activities. We often don’t think that we can be injured so gravely when we are just going about our day-to-day lives, doing chores at home or doing our daily tasks at work. However, according to The American Academy of Ophthalmology, of the 2.5 million eye injuries that occur every single year in the U.S., 55% of these injuries happen while at work.

workplace safety

If you think about it, there are many dangerous tasks that many of us perform at work each and every day, but the tasks become so routine to us that we do not even realize the dangers that they could cause if something were to go wrong. Unfortunately, when our awareness of these dangers disappear, that is when we often forgo our safety goggles, safety instructions, or overall caution that protects us from injuring ourselves.

In order to help remind you of the many dangers that you face at work daily, as well as to remind you to exercise caution when it comes to your vision at work, the month of March has been declared Workplace Eye Wellness Month. And in order to kick this awareness month of right, here are a few tips for protecting your vision in the workplace:

Eliminate Hazards Before Starting Work

One of the easiest ways to protect yourself from potential eye injuries at work is to be proactive about preventing them. This means clearing your workspace from any potential hazards that may cause danger to you. Make sure that if you are working with dangerous machinery, you are using the proper machine guarding, work screens or other engineering controls that will protect you. Removing any dangers from your workspace is the best and easiest way to prevent accidents from occurring.

Purchase The Right Type Of Safety Eyewear

Protective eyewear is an essential item for anyone that is working in dangerous conditions. In fact, OSHA has their own regulations for eye and face protection, depending on the type of work that you do. Therefore, make sure that you safety eye protection is offering you the proper protection from the different hazards of your workplace. For instance, if you know that particles will be flying around or you will be coming in contact with dust while working, make sure you have safely glasses that offer side protection. A great pair of safety eyewear could be the one thing that saves your vision in a dangerous situation.

Know What Steps You Should Take In Case Of Emergency

Above all, you should also take the time to educate yourself on the actions that you should take in case there is an unfortunate emergency or eye injury that occurs in your workplace. Many injuries can be prevented or significantly lessened simply by knowing the proper safety protocols to take once an injury occurs. Make sure that you are up to date on your company’s safety and emergency plans.

Do you have any other tips for protecting your vision from the dangers of the work place? Be sure to leave your suggestions in the comments below!

 

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