Eye Wellness at Work: Why is it Important?

“Eyes are priceless, keeping them safe is cheap.”

We know the eye wellness month is not until March, but there’s not a specific time to protect our peepers. Eye care is something that we all should do everyday.

The importance of vision cannot be stressed enough. Appreciate what your eyes do for you everyday and take good care of them.

While you wear sunglasses for UV protection and tinted glasses for night driving, have you ever wondered what type of visual protection you need at your workplace?

Given the elevated risk of eye injuries at your job, it is vital to keep your eyes safe from the debris, pollutants, chemicals and UV harm. Even if you are good at what you do, bad vision can bring down your work performance significantly.

Can you perform well at work when your eyes aren’t cooperating? Also, low vision has negative impacts on your mental health. Now you probably have started to see the true worth of your peepers.

If you still think that your eyes are better on their own, we hope this blog changes that for you.

Common workplace eye injuries

Work-related eye injuries don’t only occur in outdoor work environments. They can happen just as well even when you are working in a closed work space.

Here are some of the most common eye injuries that can happen to you in your workplace:

Projectiles: Small flying particles such as metal slivers, dust, concrete, wood chips and cement can cause eye irritation or a more serious injury in case they get deep inside your eyes.

Chemical burns: If you work in a chemical lab, medical or construction business, the toxic gases and chemical fumes can hit the delicate surface of your eye. As a result, you become more prone to eye irritation, corneal scarring or even blindness in some serious cases.

Radiation: Ionising radiation from welding flashes, sun lamps and electric sparks are extremely common in jobs that involve exposure to bright light, especially visible light. Depending on the type of radiation and intensity of the exposure, the damage can get from mild to severe, developing within a few days to months or years.

Infections: Those working in the medal industry are at a higher risk of catching eye infections due to continuous exposure to contagious diseases. They can be transmitted to your eyes via the respiratory droplets, blood and body fluids of the patients. You may also contract the infection if you touch your eyes or face with contaminated hands.

Thermal burns: If you work in an extremely hot environment or are exposed to excessive heat from welding equipment, hot gases or molten plastic, the heat can penetrate your eyes quickly. This might result in a severe eye injury or complete vision loss.

Apart from these injuries that are more likely to happen in outdoor workplaces, those with a 9 to 5 job are also vulnerable to a particular eye hazard known as ‘Computer Vision Syndrome’.

What is Computer Vision Syndrome?

This problem may as well be referred to as ‘Digital Eye Strain’ and includes a number of eye discomforts that one feels after spending extensive hours on a digital screen.

The digital devices at your work are filled with blue light that is considered to be harmful for your optic health. Therefore, blasting your eyes with long hours of blue light takes a toll on your eye and physical health.

Blue light

Blue light is one of the light in the group of visible light spectrum. As it has short wavelengths, its rays are more intense than any other light which is what makes it the most harmful type of light in the world.

While blue rays from natural sources (the sun) help in boosting alertness and elevating mood patterns, it can have a negative impact on your eyes if it is coming from an artificial source (digital devices).

An average employee consumes at least 6 to 8 hours of screen time at work which can take a negative toll on their optic health. This is why some people use computer glasses to protect their eyes from the high-energy blue light at work.

Digital eye strain symptoms

If you are an employee thinking why your head is pounding after a hectic day in the office, it is just one of the signs of digital eye strain or CVS.

Since blue light has short wavelengths, it gets scattered easily. This is why your eyes struggle to focus harder when you are staring at a digital screen and you feel those discomforting symptoms that hamper your productivity. Here is what digital consumption does to your health:

• Eye fatigue
• Headaches
• Blurred vision
• Neck or shoulder pain
• Dry eyes

If you don’t want these discomforts to keep you from performing well, make sure you adopt healthy screen habits and wear protective gear.

In case you are presbyopic and wear readers, add a blue light coating on your glasses and turn them into safety glasses. Or you can buy a fresh pair of reading glasses online that already has this coating.

Eye safety tips for employees

What safety measures you need to take depends on the possible hazards in your workplace.

To ensure maximum safety, take help from these tips:

• If you work in an area that has environmental pollutants, make sure you wear safety glasses with side shields. This will shield your eyes from debris, dust particles and sand grains and you will have a lower risk of eye irritation.
• If you are working in a chemical lab, you must wear safety goggles.
• Use welding helmets or face shields for maximum eye coverage.
• If you already wear prescription glasses, your safety glasses must also have that same prescription so you are able to see clearly while protecting your eyes.
• Make sure your safety gear is in good condition. Replace it once it gets damaged.

People who are working in physically demanding conditions must ditch their contact lenses and buy prescription glasses online or from a physical store.

Your contacts may even put you at a higher risk of eye injuries or make it worse if you already have one. The chemical splashes can reside in your contact lenses giving birth to more serious eye problems.

What employers can do?

It is not enough to provide just any safety eyewear to your workers or employees. Being a responsible employer, you first have to identify your employee’s job type (low-impact, medium-impact, high-impact) and then provide eye protection accordingly.

• Make sure you conduct a thorough assessment of your workspace and remove high-risk equipment that is potentially damaging to your eyes.
• Find a safer alternative to toxic chemicals and dangerous equipment.
• Ensure proper ventilation in the workplace and use exhaust fans to throw out dust particles or fumes.
• Make sure that the employees operating the equipment follow safety instructions and guidelines.

The takeaway

You have a higher risk of developing eye injuries at work than you think. Since you spend most of your time at the office, eye wellness at work holds greater significance. Your eyes do a hell lot of things for you everyday. This is the time you do something for them.