Offices: Lively ON, Ottawa ON, Sault Ste. Marie ON
1.866.244.3334
info@nattsafety.com

7 Best Practices for Eye Protection in the Workplace

7 Best Practices for Eye Protection in the Workplace

eyewear protection

Protecting our sight is important, and that includes working safely to ensure we protect our sight.

Canada’s Occupational Health & Safety Magazine states that every day in Canada, 700 workers sustain on-the-job eye injuries. That’s a huge amount of injuries and some that may have been avoidable.

Follow these tips to protect your eyes and sight.

Wear the right protection

Basic eye protection is safety glasses with sideshields. Make sure to look for the CSA logo on the frames.

You want to ensure you wear the correct eye protection for the job you’re doing. For example, if welding, eye protection should be marked with the shade number.

Note: Keep your safety glasses on when you wear other protection such as a welding helmet or face shield, because when you lift up the visor or shield, you may still be exposed to flying chunks of debris, dust, or other hazards.

Wear correctly-sized eyewear

When choosing safety glasses, ensure that they fit properly and protect you on whatever job you’re doing. Your eyewear should fit snugly, yet still be quite comfortable.

Avoid wearing contact lenses on site

When wearing contact lenses, dust and other particles can get under the lens and could cause damage to your eye, as well as the lens.

If you need to wear contact lenses, make sure to wear appropriate eye protection as well.

One way to avoid using contact lenses is to get safety glasses that have a prescription included in them.

Wear eye protection according to the hazard

Depending on what job you’re doing, you might require different eye protection. Goggles that protect you from dust are likely not going to protect your eyes the same from splashes or radiation.

Wear prescription glasses if needed

If you require prescription glasses, you still need to ensure you can see properly when wearing safety eyewear protection.

Either wear contact lenses (though we shared some cons above) or get a good pair of eyewear protection that you carry with you to ensure you have adequate prescription safety glasses available to you.

Get medical attention in case of an emergency

If something does happen at the workplace, make sure to act quickly and calmly. Let your supervisor know that you had a workplace incident and report what happened and the situation with your eye injury. Get medical attention quickly- don’t wait to see if it get’s better. Your eye sight is important and needs to be treated that way.

Get your eyes checked

It’s good practice to go and get an eye exam every couple of years to make sure that your eyesight is still good and any problems you may have haven’t gotten worse.

Our sight is important, as is workplace safety. Work smart, work safe, and keep an eye out for your other coworkers as well.

Do you have questions about workplace safety? Contact us today!

If you need safety equipment in Sudbury for your business, contact Northern Safety Supply!

4 Responses

  1. Matt Payne says:

    Great content! I work for an airline and currently our mechanics are required to wear eye protection only if the specific job task requires it. Is it a best practice to require mechanics to always wear safety glasses when on the job, regardless of the task they are doing? Does wearing safety glasses introduce additional hazards (such as reduced peripheral vision)?

    Thanks!

    • nattsafety says:

      Thanks so much Matt, we appreciate you reading and leaving a comment! Definitely speak up if you feel you should be wearing your eye protection for more than they are required, safety needs to come first. There are situations which may require unique eye protection in order for workers to safely do their job and be able to stay safe. There might be a specific reason on your job site that you aren’t being asked to wear your eye protection, so I would ask questions if you aren’t sure.

  2. hauzan kamil says:

    Thanks for sharing the tips. There is another important tips to be considered. Make sure to attached eye goggle to the head and keep it while you are working. If necessary use a lock system.
    Another important thing is to replace eye goggle when it get expired or blur.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *