Eye Protection: The Overlooked Facet of Head Safety on the Job

How to identify the right protection for the job at hand.

By: Ryan Barnes, Contributor

Anti-slip rubberized temples – like those on STUDSON’S Sentinel safety glasses – help secure the frames on the wearer’s face. Photo courtesy of STUDSON.

Every year, thousands of industrial workers are blinded from work-related eye injuries, as reported by OSHA.¹ However, such injuries are preventable with the enforcement of the proper use of eye and face protection.

Whether to protect from chemical, radiological, environmental, or mechanical irritants and hazards, industrial workers must be adequately educated and provided with the correct tools to protect themselves from dangerous hazards. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, contact with objects and equipment is the leading cause of eye injuries and illnesses.²

In an industrial setting or construction site, workers risk deadly run-ins with objects like flying debris, metal, dirt, sparks, and more. Those working outside also need proper eye protection to defend against varying weather patterns and exposure to UV rays. Job sites are littered with hazards — some that could cause the loss of digits, others that can lead to head trauma – but at the end of the day, if a worker is blinded due to lack of eye protection, the worker cannot return and go back to operating heavy machinery, or welding, for example. Devastatingly, such an injury could be career-ending.

IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT PROTECTION FOR THE JOB AT HAND

Eye protection is not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are various forms of eye protection, each carefully designed for the trade or craft to be performed. One would not see a welder wearing sun-glass-like safety goggles, just as it would be abnormal for a concrete pourer to wear a tinted full face shield. It is essential to understand the different offerings, and how each style translates directly to a job to be done. Safety managers and workers alike must understand what is considered critical protection for each worker on site and monitor operations to ensure everyone is protected and OSHA compliant.

Eye Protection Considerations

Safety Glasses

Safety glasses come in all shapes and sizes, from clear, bulky science class glasses and athletic sports glasses, to those built for an industrial athlete. However, many considerations go into a quality pair for industrial trade work that can accompany a worker through the most demanding tasks.

One should consider many performance features, with the first being durability. For quality protection, one should look into safety glasses that include polycarbonate lenses for impact protection, visual clarity, and durability. Hydrophobic coatings are also helpful, as they repel water, sweat, and debris to keep the lens clear. When considering the elements, anti-slip rubberized coatings around the nose and temples help secure the frames on the wearer’s face even in rainy or steamy conditions.

In addition, those who spend much of their time working outdoors should consider the damaging effects of the sun when purchasing eye protection. Lenses should provide UVA/UVB protection to ensure one’s eyes are guarded from environmental threats while also protecting from job site dangers. Finally, one should seek safety glasses that meet ANSI/ISEA Z87+ standards³. This standard outlines criteria for the requirements, testing, marking, selection, care, and use of PPE to reduce or prevent injuries from hazards like impact, non-ionizing radiation, and liquid splashes in workplaces and educational settings, including machinery operation, welding, cutting, chemical handling, and assembly tasks.

Face Shields

Similar to safety glasses, face shields guard one of our most important assets, our eyes, but they go a step beyond by providing complete face protection. Face shields come in both half shields and full face shields, depending on the risk and job an employee faces.

A full-face shield is essential for tasks with a high risk of substantial debris, liquid splashes, sparks, or chemical exposure that could impact a large portion of the face, such as metal grinding, cutting, or handling hazardous liquids. For less intensive activities involving minor debris or splashes that primarily pose a risk to the eye area—like light sanding or hammering—a half-face shield may offer adequate protection by shielding the eyes from potential flying particles.

Whether the job calls for a full or half-face shield, the considerations for the material makeup of the shield remain the same. One should look for face shields that include anti-scratch and anti-fog coatings. Both features help keep one’s field of vision as clear as possible, whether that be due to scratching from debris that hits the shield, fogging up from breathing, or the elements. If a worker wears prescription eyeglasses or safety goggles under one’s face shield, models that easily fit over the top are available.

Welding Shields

Welding environments pose risks beyond flying objects. In addition to flying particles that can injure one’s head, welders are exposed to infrared radiation that can cause cataracts or retina burning. Also, the UV radiation that welding arcs produce can lead to welder’s flash which can potentially cause permanent eye damage. Welding processes differ, depending on materials and currents, and various welding shield tints correspond with the task at hand, ranging from shade two to shade 14. It is essential to know which shade applies to each day’s work. No matter the needed shade, a few considerations apply to each job.

Investing in a shield with a wide peripheral view and a toric-shaped lens allows for an expansive field of vision, excellent downward sightlines, and minimizes internal glare – helping one stay aware of one’s surroundings. Chin protectors are also important to shield against hazards from below like splashes and debris.

INTEGRATING EYE PROTECTION WITH HEAD PROTECTION

The market for eye and head protection is expansive, but not all eye protection is designed to integrate with a worker’s existing head protection. For the most comfortable and ergonomic experience, workers and safety managers can invest in purpose-built eye protection to integrate with their existing helmets. Many safety helmet manufacturers offer above-the-neck protection built to clip onto their safety helmets. When a job is paused, or there is a task in between that does not require a face or welding shield, the worker can simply lift the shield like one would with sunglasses so it is stowed up and out of the way on top of their helmet. This can help prevent misplacing the PPE between tasks and provide a more streamlined and comfortable experience for the wearer.

Employee morale and productivity can be tied to the tools provided or invested in; therefore, comfortable eye protection that can be easily removed, stowed, and replaced, is a win-win for workers and job progression. wmhs

Ryan Barnes⁴ is Founder/CEO, STUDSON, Inc., a company with one goal in mind: to consistently deliver the most innovative head protection in the industrial market so workers can get home safe every night. Learn more at https://studson.com.