Common causes for eye injuries are:

• Flying objects (bits of metal, glass)
• Tools
• Particles
• Chemicals
• Harmful radiation
• Any combination of these or other hazards

What is the best defense against an eye injury?

There are three things you can do to help prevent an eye injury

1. Know the eye safety dangers at work-complete an eye hazard assessment
2. Eliminate hazards before starting work. Use machine guarding, work screens, or other engineering controls)v
3. Use proper eye protection

What type of safety eye protection should be worn?

The type of safety eye protection you should wear depends on the hazards in your workplace. If you are working in an area that has particles, flying objects, or dust, you must at least wear safety glasses with side protection (side shields). If you are working with chemicals, you should wear goggles. If you are working near hazardous radiation (welding, lasers, or fiber optics) you must use special-purpose safety glasses, goggles, face shields, or helmets designed for that task.

Source: Prevent Blindness

www.preventblindness.org

Our mission: to Prevent Blindness and Preserve Sight

We screen. We check the eyes of millions of children and adults each year. Our vision screenings help preschoolers at risk of vision loss from lazy eye (amblyopia), school children who depend on good vision for learning, and adults threatened by glaucoma and other serious vision problems.

We educate. We get the word out on better eye health through brochures, fact sheets, public service announcements, newsletters, media campaigns, special events, the web and social media. Every year more than 120 million people read, hear or see our messages about early detection of eye disease and prevention of accidents that can cause permanent loss of sight.

We advocate. We work with government officials at the state, local and national levels - building grassroots advocacy movements and institutional partnerships that will improve our nation's public health policies.

We support groundbreaking vision research. We support the work of scientists who will find tomorrow's cures for the eye diseases that threaten Americans with vision loss and blindness.

We train. We train and certify adult and children's vision screeners and screening instructors through the only national program of its kind, providing 20,000 vision screening personnel with the skills they need to help people in their communities.

We are in your community today. We improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands through our community programs. Our website, www.preventblindness.org and our Prevent Blindness Vision Health resource Center (1-800-331-2020) put us within reach of anyone with Internet access or a telephone.