Eye Protection In The Workplace
Eye Protection Regulations - 29 CFR 1910.133
Employees can be exposed to a large number of hazards
that pose danger to their eyes and face. OSHA requires employers to
ensure that employees have appropriate eye or face protection if they
are exposed to eye or face hazards from flying particles, molten metal,
liquid chemicals, acids or caustic liquids, chemical gases or vapors,
potentially infected material or potentially harmful light radiation.
Many occupational eye injuries occur because workers are not wearing
any eye protection while others result from wearing improper or poorly
fitting eye protection. Employers must be sure that their employees
wear appropriate eye and face protection and that the selected form
of protection is appropriate to the work being performed and properly
fits each worker exposed to the hazard.
Prescription Lenses
Everyday use of prescription corrective lenses will not provide adequate
protection against most occupational eye and face hazards, so employers
must make sure that employees with corrective lenses either wear eye
protection that incorporates the prescription into the design or wear
additional eye protection over their prescription lenses. It is important
to ensure that the protective eyewear does not disturb the proper positioning
of the prescription lenses so that the employee’s vision will
not be inhibited or limited. Also, employees who wear contact lenses
must wear eye or face PPE when working in hazardous conditions.
Eye Protection for Exposed Workers
OSHA suggests that eye protection be routinely considered for use by carpenters,
electricians, machinists, mechanics, millwrights, plumbers and pipefitters,
sheetmetal workers and tinsmiths, assemblers, sanders, grinding machine
operators, sawyers, welders, laborers, chemical process operators and
handlers, and timber cutting and logging workers. Employers of workers
in other job categories should decide whether there is a need for eye
and face PPE through a hazard assessment. Examples of potential eye or
face injuries include:
- Dust, dirt, metal or wood chips entering the eye from activities
such as chipping, grinding, sawing, hammering, the use of power tools
or even strong wind forces.
- Chemical splashes from corrosive substances, hot liquids, solvents
or other hazardous solutions.
- Objects swinging into the eye or face, such as tree limbs, chains,
tools or ropes.
- Radiant energy from welding, harmful rays from the use of lasers
or other radiant light (as well as heat, glare, sparks, splash and
flying particles).
Types of Eye Protection
Selecting the most suitable eye and face protection
for employees should take into consideration the following elements:
- Ability to protect against specific workplace hazards.
- Should fit properly and be reasonably comfortable
to wear.
- Should provide unrestricted vision and movement.
- Should be durable and cleanable.
- Should allow unrestricted functioning of any
other required PPE.
The eye and face protection selected for employee use
must clearly identify the manufacturer. Any new eye and face protective
devices must comply with ANSI Z87.1-1989 or be at least as effective as
this standard requires. Any equipment purchased before this requirement
took effect on July 5, 1994, must comply with the earlier ANSI Standard
(ANSI Z87.1-1968) or be shown to be equally effective.
An employer may choose to provide one pair of protective eyewear for each
position rather than individual eyewear for each employee. If this is
done, the employer must make sure that employees disinfect shared protective
eyewear after each use. Protective eyewear with corrective lenses may
only be used by the employee for whom the corrective prescription was
issued and may not be shared among employees.
Some of the most common types of eye and face protection
include the following:
- Safety spectacles. These protective
eyeglasses have safety frames constructed of metal or plastic and
impact-resistant lenses. Side shields are available on some models.
- Goggles. These are tight-fitting
eye protection that completely cover the eyes, eye sockets and the
facial area immediately surrounding the eyes and provide protection
from impact, dust and splashes. Some goggles will fit over corrective
lenses.
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