How Safety Glasses Can Keep You from Loosing Your Eyes

Safety Glasses and Why you Need Them

Safety glasses are very important when the nature of your business requires your staff to wear eye protection, and ensuring that you have the equipment to keep your employees safe from harm.

The Importance of Eye Protection in the Workplace

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), at least 90% of all reported eye injuries that happen at both the workplace and at home are preventable by simply wearing safety glasses.

From these statistics, approximately 60% of workplace eye injuries occur while personnel are not wearing safety glasses, while 40% of them occur while operators are wearing improper protection.

With such staggering statistics, it can be difficult to imagine why people neglect simply slipping on eye protection before engaging in dangerous tasks.

Yet this could possibly be linked to a common tendency to not put on seat belts while driving, or wearing hearing protection at construction sites; all of which are expected to regulate safety in their own regard, but are commonly neglected resulting in injury or death.

But there is no excuse for not using proper protection, whether in the car or at the factory.

Your responsibility as the employer

As an employer, you are responsible for supplying your employees with the correct eye protection equipment at the workplace.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) requires all employers to supply their staff that are engaging in dangerous work activities with safety glasses that is in accordance with ANSI Z87.1 certification.

This certification ensures that safety wear producers adhere to product performance standards while keeping the needs of the worker in terms of workplace hazards in mind.

A failure to provide such essential equipment to your staff could result in a fine ranging between $12,500 to $125,000, but more importantly, could lead to severe injuries being suffered by your staff.

The safety of your staff

Some jobs pose a greater danger of eye injuries than others.

Statistically, more than 40% of reported injuries of this type occur in craft occupations such as plumbing, steelworks, carpentry and mechanics; while 33% occur in operators of heavy equipment, while just over 20% occur in the construction industry.

Eye injuries in these fields may occur from falling objects, sparks, contact with dangerous chemicals as well as swinging objects like ropes and chains which snag the eye and cause damage.

No excuse for no protection

Even when supplying your staff with the correct safety goggles, ensuring that they are properly and strictly used can be a problem.

You may come across a myriad of excuses in this regard like, ‘I don’t need them’, ‘I forgot them at home’, and ‘they are uncomfortable’.

All of these excuses point to a lack of understanding with regards to the importance of such equipment. Educating your staff on the importance of protecting their safety by relying on safety glasses is there for exceptionally important.

For more information on the importance and application of protective safety glasses in your business visit our website or give us a call and speak to one of our consultants today.