Protect Your Eyes From Workplace Hazards
357,000 Australians don’t get to enjoy what most people take for granted – the gift of sight. Blindness occurs when damage is inflicted to the cornea (the transparent layer protecting the eye), retina (the light-sensitive tissue at the back of your eye), or nerve endings. 4% of blindness is caused by eye injury or trauma, and it’s safe to say that the majority of these 14,280 incidents were work-related.
Common Workplace Eye Hazards
There are a number of ways that eyes can be damaged, from foreign objects to hard chemicals as the workplace can present a number of risks which need to be managed.
Welding
Welding is one of the most common injuries to sustain eye injuries. Helmets alone do not offer enough protection as most types of welding produce potentially harmful UV, infrared, and visible spectrum radiation. Welders should wear google or safety glasses with side shields that are AS/ANS 1337 certified. Note that goggles offer better protection from impact, dust and radiation than safety glasses.
Elliotts offer Specialised Protective Eyewear and Goggles from Pyramex which provide 99% protection from UV (A & B rays) and even Shade 3 and 5 lens.
Chemicals
Chemicals represent a significant risk to your eyes and should be handled with care. For employees working in the industrial setting, handling chemicals under high pressure add to the already present risks. A good way to control chemical based eye injuries is to read the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that the manufacturer supplies with the hazardous substance and comply with all instructions. When dealing with chemicals use Elliotts’ Pyramex Chemical Googles.
Construction Worksites
Construction worksites often provide a never-ending list of potential eye injuries. The main causes of construction-related injuries are foreign bodies and dust. Debris such as nails, tiny pieces of metal, splinters and wire ends which can fly through the air and the mixing of cement, sawing, grinding and chipping which produce dust and grit. When selecting glasses, remember they need to be certified to AS/NZS 1337 for Medium Impact Protection.
Use Elliotts’ Pyramex V2G for dusty situations and Elliotts’ Pyramex PMXSlim for general wear are both great starts for eye protection at work.
Outdoor Work
Lastly, any workers who work in an outdoor setting should have suitable sunglasses to wear at all times. UV exposure can cause short-term and long-term effects on eye health. Interestingly, people with blue eyes are more at risk for UV damage than those with brown eyes. Sunburn of the eye is a common result of not wearing sunglasses this makes the eyes seem bloodshot, swollen and/or light-sensitive and in severe cases can result in loss of vision for up to 48 hours.
To safeguard yourself, use Elliotts’ Pyramex PMXSlim with Smoke Lens.
See more of Elliotts’ extensive range of safety glasses and goggles, Click Here.
Contact Us
If you’d like to learn more about our safety products or need some expert advice on which safety gear to get for your needs, feel free to get in contact with us at Elliotts Australia. We would love to assist you! Call us on 07 3265 2944 or send us a message – HERE.
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