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Eye Protection: Matching the Eyewear to the Hazard
Always match the type of eye protection to the specific risk of the task.
Why this matters
- Your eyes are one of the most sensitive parts of your body. On a busy site, hazards like flying metal chips, cement dust, and chemical splashes can cause permanent blindness in less than a second.
- Generic safety glasses are common, but they do not protect against everything. Many eye injuries happen because the worker was wearing the wrong type of protection for that specific job, or the equipment did not fit correctly.
Talking points
- Use standard safety glasses with side shields for general site work and light impact risks.
- Switch to safety goggles if the job involves heavy dust, liquid splashes, or pressurized air. Goggles create a seal around your eyes that glasses cannot provide.
- Wear a full face shield over your safety glasses when grinding or using a cut-off saw. A face shield alone is not enough: it must be used with glasses underneath.
- Ensure your eyewear fits snugly. If it slides down your nose or leaves large gaps, it will not stop a flying object from reaching your eye.
- Check your lenses for deep scratches or pitting. Scratched lenses reduce your vision and can cause accidents because you cannot see the danger clearly.
- Clean your eyewear only with water or approved cleaning stations. Rubbing them with a dirty shirt or dusty gloves will ruin the lens.
- Dark or tinted lenses are for outdoor sun only. Never wear them inside buildings or in dim areas: if you cannot see, you are at risk of a fall.
Ask the crew
- When should you use sealed goggles instead of standard safety glasses?
- Why must you wear safety glasses under a face shield when grinding?
- What should you do if your safety glasses become too scratched to see through?
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