Welders: wear your PPE; employers: use engineering controls to block propelled objects
Welders are at particularly high risk for eye injuries. A Canadian study reported that welders represented 21% of all eye injury claims. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), welders, cutters, and welding machine operators held about 521 000 jobs in 2000. The welding process exposes workers to a number of sources of mechanical, radiant, thermal, or chemical energy. A two-year study of eye injury among workers in automobile manufacturing reported that 15% of the most common types of injuries (foreign body, corneal abrasion, and chemical injury) were welding related. Welding is also the second leading cause of consumer product related ocular trauma.
Welding can also be performed by workers other than welders—for example, pipe fitters or construction workers. A recent study of work-related eye injuries reported that workers who are “sometimes” or “often” exposed to welding had a fourfold increased risk of an eye injury compared with non-exposed workers. However, little is known regarding the specific activities or circumstances involved in eye injuries among welders.