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A Candid Talk About Safety Glasses
by Bob White
ROII Safety Services Director As the Safety Services Director for ROII, I have the ominous privilege of looking at injuries daily. Too often, I read about workers suffering eye injuries when material flies into their eyes while they’re grinding, drilling, milling, sawing or doing similar work.
Ironically, I’ve read many accident reports where injured worker statements say, “my safety glasses didn’t do their job.” Often, these workers sustain eye injuries or need to have materials removed from their eyes despite wearing safety glasses. In many cases, they’re wearing both a face shield and safety glasses.
That leads me to the conclusion there are specific tasks where it’s inevitable that wood or metal pieces will fly through the air at high speeds. At this velocity, materials can bounce and ricochet off safety glass lenses or frames, and/or cheeks and foreheads, and find just the right angle to get into an operator’s eyes.
Gasketed safety glasses or goggles can help
In many cases, when performing these types of tasks, gasketed safety glasses could have prevented objects from getting around the safety glasses.
“We forget and often take for granted just how precious and important our eyesight really is,” said one worker who has lived with only one good eye for 59 years.
It may be worthwhile to evaluate tasks performed at your place of business and ask whether any of these tasks warrant tight-fitting safety goggles or gasketed safety glasses?
You can help prevent a severe eye injury by visiting with employees about this subject and placing sealed eye protection PPE near grinders, drilling tools, etc., where material can fly through the air at high speeds.
Many manufacturers offer safety glasses with removable foam gaskets. Some even come in kits that can convert regular safety glasses into tight-fitting, gasketed goggles for greater protection from flying objects and grindings.
Affordable options available
Here’s an example of the affordable glasses we include in our Builder Basics Bag, where we have carefully selected inexpensive and straightforward safety items that could help prevent common injuries on the job site.
As an ROII participant, you already receive our weekly safety topic emails. If you want to be added to our email list, reach out to ROII Safety Services Director Bob White at (360) 352-7800 ext. 117 or bobw@biaw.com.
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