Prevent Blindness America (PBA) has designated the month of March as Workplace Vision Wellness Month. The goal of this directive is to teach corporations and their employees about the importance of vision wellness, including advice on how to prevent vision-impairing eye mishaps.
Every day, employees are inflicted by workplace related eye injuries that need the attention of an eye care professional or doctor. Safety experts and doctors believe the two main reasons that people sustain eye injuries is because they fail to use anything to shield their eyes or they are taking the wrong sorts of safety measures.
Construction, manufacturing, mining, woodwork, auto repair, electrical work, plumbing, metal welding and maintenance are all high risk occupations for eye injuries.
Keeping your Eyes Protected
An eye care professional is trained to help you determine possible eye dangers at your workplace and decide on the optimal kind of eye protection for you.
Often, working conditions possess multiple dangers and finding the correct eye protection should take all potential risks into consideration.
If you work with chemicals you should wear goggles, and if you work in an area where you encounter airborne objects or particles, use safety glasses with shields along the sides too.
For those who work near dangerous radiation when welding, using lasers, or fiber optics calls for the use of special-purpose safety glasses, protective goggles with a face shield, or helmets designed just for this sort of work.
Computer Monitors and Healthy Vision
Working with computers or using mobile devices like phones or readers can also be unsafe for your eyes.
Below are some tips to prevent putting your eyes under unnecessary pressure when working on a computer or using a hand held device:
Learn the 20-20-20 rule to give your eyes a rest. Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. If using a mobile device, make the font bigger so you'll be able to use it at a distance more comfortable for your eyes.
Also maintain the light intensity of your monitor to a resolution that is not too bright or too dim and position your monitor just below eye level to pose less of a strain on your eyes. You may also want to speak to your eye doctor about computer glasses.
If you think that you may be in danger of any eye or vision damage due to your work don't delay! Give us a call to discuss the hazards and solutions for a lifetime of eye and vision health!