If your workplace has any eye hazards, a basic eye protection policy is the easiest way to lower on-the-job injuries. These hazards do not need any history of severity. One bad eye injury will trigger a policy out of necessity, but do not wait that long. OSHA has always mandated that you will have an eye protection policy, and this has been strengthened under its more recent personnal protective equipment regulations. But the primary reason why you should have a workable program is that once it is in place, it will save unknown numbers of people from unncessary pain and suffering and will save your organization 'undocumentable' amounts of time and money.

Every group that has a successful program has a 'war story' that begins such a policy. At our plant, an individual who was using a nail gun to attach a metal clip to a wood frame, miscued and did not get the nail lined up with the hole in the clip. When he shot the nail it hit the clip and ricocheted up into his eye.