Prevent Blindness America (PBA) has marked the month of March as Workplace Vision Wellness Month. The goal of this initiative is to educate businesses and their workers about the importance of eye wellness, with advice on how to avoid vision-threatening eye accidents.
Each day, employees suffer from job related eye injuries that need medical attention. Safety experts and doctors say that the two most common reasons that workers get eye injuries is because they fail to use anything to protect their eyes or they are using the wrong type of eye protection.
High risk occupations for eye injuries include building, manufacturing, mining, woodwork, auto repair, electrical work, plumbing, welding and general maintenance.
Making Work a Safe Site
There are four crucial ways to prevent eye injuries:
- Be aware of the eye safety risks found at your job.
- Reduce your exposure to risks before starting work by obtaining machine guards, screens or other engineering controls.
- Use safety goggles that are fitted properly and provide enough coverage for your job. Your eye doctor will be able to assist in determining the most suitable safety eyewear for your profession.
- Make sure to keep your protective eyewear in great condition.
Healthy Screen Vision
Those who spend a large portion of their day working on computers or using hand held devices are also at increased risk of discomfort such as blurred vision, headaches and eye strain.
Below are some helpful tips to prevent putting your eyes under unnecessary pressure when using hand held devices or working on a computer:
Implement the 20-20-20 rule to give your eyes a rest. At every 20 minute interval take a 20 second break and have a look at something 20 feet away. If you're using a hand-held device, make the font bigger so you can use it at a distance more gentle for your eyes.
Additionally try to keep the brightness of your monitor to a comfortable resolution and position your monitor just below eye level to reduce any pressure on your eyes. You may also want to speak to your eye doctor about computer glasses.
If you have further queries relating to protecting your vision in the workplace, please contact us today!