“You’ll shoot your eye out kid,” Santa replies in the 1980s movie classic A Christmas Story, when Ralphie asks for a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. That phrase has become synonymous with eye safety in a joking manner.
In reality, personal protection equipment (PPE) isn’t laughable when thousands of people are blinded, injured, or killed each year from accidents that could have been prevented or minimized if appropriate PPE had been used. According to OSHA, eye injuries alone cost more than $300 million per year in lost production time, medical compensation and worker compensation.