Preventing Eye Injuries



Experts say more than 90 percent of eye injuries can be prevented by simply taking a few precautions and wearing safety glasses.
If you use a lawn mower, leaf-blower, drill or similar power tools, you need protective eyewear. These glasses should have a snug, wrap-style frame to decrease the likelihood of small, airborne particles getting behind the lenses.
If you wear corrective lenses, hardware stores sell inexpensive goggles that will usually fit over your glasses. But a better and more comfortable option is to purchase a pair of customized safety eyewear with polycarbonate lenses from an eye care practitioner.
Workplace Eye Safety Programs

In U.S. workplaces that involve any kind of airborne particles or noxious chemicals, employers must adhere to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines for protective eyewear and emergency eye care.







If you or your employer is unsure of which guidelines apply to your workplace, visit the OSHA website for information on these topics:

• Eye and face protection
• General industry standards
• State plans
• State plan publications and training materials

Most protective eyewear standards require employers to provide prescription safety lenses to employees who need corrective eyewear. An alternative is to provide a shield that will cover and protect the employee's own eyeglasses. Some types of work require safety glasses, others require safety shields and still others require safety shields worn over safety glasses.
Be sure that you fully understand the risks for eye injuries at your workplace and the most appropriate type of safety eyewear you should use. Employers also should consult with an eye doctor who is familiar with safety eyewear programs for additional insight beyond the information available from OSHA.
Eye Safety and Air Bags

Since 1989, when air bags were first required in autos sold in the United States, these safety devices have saved thousands of lives. But there has been plenty of controversy about the risk/reward of air bags; many people have sustained significant injuries from them, and deaths have even been attributed to air bag deployment.
<!-- sidebar Med -->Eye Safety NewsOxygen Therapy Helps Heal Chemical and Thermal Burns in the Eyes
AHVAZ, Iran, June 2011 — Applying oxygen to burned eyes helped them to heal better and faster in a study.
Scientists at the Department of Ophthalmology, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, treated 24 eyes of 22 patients with acute chemical and thermal burns in their eyes. Thirteen of the eyes also received oxygen therapy — an oxygen mask applied over the eyes for one hour, twice a day.
In the oxygen therapy group, injuries on the surface of the eye healed in 10 to 21 days, vs. 28 to 95 days in the group that didn't receive oxygen. Blood vessels healed in 10 to 21 days in the oxygen group, vs. 25 to 105 days for the others.
The oxygen group had more transparent corneas with less redness three and six months afterward and regained better visual acuity after healing. Symblepharon (when the eyelid adheres to the eyeball) didn't occur in the oxygen group, but it did in three eyes of the other group.
The study report appeared in the American Journal of Ophthalmology in May.



<!-- /sidebar Med -->Newer vehicles are equipped with air bags that deploy with less force than first-generation bags, making them safer.
Though it's possible to sustain a corneal abrasion or other eye injury from your vehicle's air bags during an accident, you would be at risk of much more serious injuries (including eye injuries from a shattered windshield) without these safety devices when traveling at highway speeds.







To reduce your risk of injury to your eyes and head from air bags:

• Make sure you are wearing your seatbelt and that it's properly adjusted.
• Adjust the headrest of your seat for proper support.
• Sit at least 10 inches away from the steering wheel.
• Don't smoke cigarettes or weed while driving. Oh, Don't drink & drink & drive either : )~*
• Have children sit in the back seat with seatbelts and safety seats properly adjusted.

Laser Pointers, Champagne Corks and Fireworks

Laser pointers. These devices shine a focused beam of high intensity light, usually red, and are commonly used in corporate and classroom presentations to highlight specific points or images on media screens.
<!-- sidebar Med -->Important Eye Safety TipsThe American Academy of Ophthalmology has some useful eye safety tips for everything from mowing the lawn to recharging a dead car battery:
Check for rocks and debris before mowing the lawn or trimming the hedges. These objects can become dangerous projectiles when shot out from lawn mowers and trimmers such as weed whackers. Don't forget to wear goggles.
Bungee cords are a common cause of severe eye injuries. Wear eye protection when using bungee cords.
Buy safe toys for kids, avoiding those with sharp edges. (Read more about toys and eye safety.)
Never use fireworks. Even sparklers burn hot enough to melt gold.
Keep a pair of safety glasses or goggles with your jumper cables, and follow instructions carefully when jump-starting a dead car battery.
Be careful with household chemicals, since many can burn your eyes' delicate tissues. Always wear goggles, read instructions carefully, work in well ventilated areas and make sure the nozzle is pointed away from you.
Always wear appropriate eye protection when playing sports. (Read more about protective sports eyewear.)
Have fun in the sun, but always wear sunglasses that block 99 to 100 percent of UV-A and UV-B rays when outdoors for extended times. — L.S.



<!-- /sidebar Med -->Looking directly at the light beam of a laser pointer can cause temporary vision loss and even permanent damage to the retina. This was learned after children and young adults began purchasing laser pointers and using them as toys.
Also, laser pointers began to be used as sighting devices for paintball guns. Because of the potential for eye injuries, the FDA has now mandated that laser pointers carry warning labels mentioning possible retinal damage.
In 2010, the American Academy of Ophthalmology issued a consumer warning about high-powered laser pointers that are even more dangerous than other types. The organization cited the case of a teenaged boy who suffered retinal injuries while playing with the pointer in front of a mirror. The case was reported in the Sept. 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The U.S. legal limit for handheld laser power is 5 mW, but the injured boy had purchased a 150 mW device on the Internet. Often such devices are advertised as toys and are not labeled as hazardous.
The Academy advised not pointing lasers near the eye or near reflective surfaces.
Champagne corks. During a celebration, you're probably not thinking about eye damage. But a flying cork from a bottle of champagne can rupture an eyeball or cause a detached retina, both of which can cause blindness.
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, this happens more often with champagne bottles that haven't been fully chilled, because the corks come out much more forcefully.
To prevent injury, point the cork away from yourself and others while opening the bottle. Place a towel over the cork, and keep your hand on the cork as you remove it with a twisting action, rather than pushing under the cork. Don't worry, it will still make that delightful "pop," and you and your friends will be much safer!
Fireworks. An estimated 8,600 fireworks-related injuries were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2010, and more than 1,800 of these accidents (21 percent) were eye injuries, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).







Other findings in the CPSC's "2010 Fireworks Annual Report" included:

• About 6,300 fireworks-related injuries (73 percent of the annual total for 2010) occurred within a 30-day period that included the Fourth of July holiday weekend (June 18 to July 18).
• Males sustained 65 percent of fireworks-related injuries; females accounted for 35 percent.
• An estimated 26 percent of the injuries occurred in children age 9 and younger; 53 percent occurred in people under 20 years of age.
• Almost all types of fireworks caused eye injuries, including sparklers.
• For children under 5 years old, sparklers accounted for the largest number of injuries (43 percent of the total for that age group).
• The parts of the body most often injured by fireworks were: hands and fingers (30 percent); legs (22 percent); eyes (21 percent); and head, face and ears (16 percent).

The American Academy of Ophthalmology offers these safety tips for preventing eye injuries from fireworks:

• Never let children play with fireworks.
• View fireworks from at least 500 feet away.
• Only trained professionals should light fireworks.
• Don't touch any unexploded fireworks remains. Instead, notify the fire or police department.

Eye Injuries Related to Paintball

Without proper eye and head protection, people can receive devastating injuries from paintball guns. Some guns are capable of propelling paint pellets at speeds over 180 mph.

The most important rule for paintball is this: Never take off your head shield, which should combine eye and ear protection. Commercial paintball fields require that you keep a head shield on at all times when you're in the playing area, even when a game has not yet begun. Most documented paintball-related eye injuries have occurred when players removed their shields, even for just a few seconds.
Paintball injuries include traumatic cataracts, detached retinas, hyphema (bleeding inside the eye), glaucoma, orbital (eye socket) blowout fractures and rupturing of the eyeball. Paintball-related eye injuries can result in permanent vision loss and even blindness.
If you're still not convinced of the importance of wearing protective gear while playing paintball, consider these statistics:
In a 2007 retrospective study of paintball-related eye injuries treated at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (Miami), 86 percent (31) of the patients were men, and only one had been wearing protective eyewear. Among this group of injuries, surgery was required to treat 81 percent of the cases.
Eight eyes (22 percent) were so badly damaged that they had to be surgically removed. Even after treatment, vision was 20/200 or worse (legally blind) in 18 (50 percent) of the injured eyes, according to the study.
The common warning that you'll "put out an eye" if you're not careful actually can be true, particularly when you are engaged in certain types of work, home and sports activities. Unlike other parts of the body that can heal after a serious injury, your unprotected eye — and your vision — may never fully recover from certain wounds.
Read more about protective sports eyewear

 

Below is one link on Safety Sunglasses.
If you have or know of a good place to purchase ? Please post & share...I think protecting your sight is a good investment 4-Sure..
SafetyGlassesUSA.com - Safety Glasses, Bifocal Safety Glasses, Shooting Glasses, Sunglasses
Click above to review & post your choice or what you are wearing to protect your eyes ?

 

Below link for Entertainment purposes only...ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses
Click, Put on your Cheap Sunglasses & Sing Along
http://youtu.be/jVGo8TLp40A

Click above 2 see/listen & get `up & Dance
P.s. I love old time ROCK & Roll & ZZ Top : )

 

I'd prefer to get rid of the dam airbags. I don't like them anyway. I actually feel less safe in an air bag equipped car than I do in my older cars that don't have them.

 

I don't mind safety devices as long as someone isn't shoving them down my throat. Seat belts I think are a good thing. I choose to wear them. I don't like a law that gives me no choice. Air bags should have a key switch on the dash that allows me to disable them each time I drive. Similar to what pick up trucks have for the right side passenger..

 

I agree with ya i hate that the law makes us wear em i wear mine but atm wen i drive im not supposed to wear mine with my injuries & yet i still get a ticket which im fighting atm & i hate air bags, ill look up the site here in a bit but if u have certain disabilitys u can get urs disabled, & as far as sunglasses all i wear is oakleys with there plutoninite lenses

 

What if these guys told me to?

 

Lol ~ LOL `Barovelli That's a Classic 4-Sure
We must listen to the Z's ~> LOL
I just woke up from the reCharge & still in a fog, but logged on and really laughed when I seen your reply/post ~>
Thanks for being a active contributing member, and extra thanks for your last post ~>

Love your sense of HUMOR

 

Hmmm I never really thought about sunglasses before but i only wear cheap ones cuz I lose them all the time. I do try to wear eye protection when doing things that are dangerous but don't think about it all the time, usually right after I get hit with something in the face. I've been lucky so far I guess. I never wore my seat belt except on the highway until I got the monte now I feel weird without it

 

I have a pair of Under Armour sunglasses but rarely wear sunglasses while i drive