OT-why wear safety glasses?

Nancy Howell · Jun 3, 2014

Why wear safety glasses?

Simple.

Last night I was mowing the back yard with the push mower. Mower threw something and it smacked me on the face. Never saw it coming and even if I had, there was no time to dodge. As always when mowing, had my safety glasses on.

James and I wear safety glasses all the time when working around the farm and ALWAYS when mowing.

Safety glasses cost from $5.00 to $50.00 for the ones with correction. Even the expensive ones are less than a trip to the hospital for an eye injury.

Let's be safe out there!

rustyacres sd · Jun 3, 2014

Same here. Always safety glasses. Also wear hearing protection. When the grand kids are here and mow. They must wear both safety glasses and hearing protection

Leroy · Jun 3, 2014

Where o where could you ever find safty glasses with correction for $50? $500 is more like it as just the normal everyday glasses are over $400 for trifocals, that I wear, and plain frames, nothing extra. They do not even stock the display frames that will take the side shields. Had a pair of them 25 years ago.

NNP · Jun 3, 2014

I've always wore glasses, hate contacts.
Always safety glasses because of jobs I've had, easier than changing them all the time.
But, I tell ya, in the shop those small particle 'gremlins' have great aim. bounce off your shoulder, cheekbone, under your glasses...right in the eye.
Using a bench or hand grinder, etc, I now wear goggles right over my glasses.....

sonny2 · Jun 3, 2014

Nancy, When I was working at a plastics factory, we were changing a screen pack on an extruder, where the temperature was around 450 degrees. I always wore a heavy sweatshirt and heavy asbestos gloves and a clear faceshield. When we opened the machine there was residual pressure there and superheated plastic. It was at face level and hit me in the faceshield. If I wouldn"t have had that shield on, I would have been blind in an instant. I believe in taking precautions.

Paul

Don-Wi · Jun 3, 2014

I think both MSC and McMaster Carr sell safety glasses that double as bifocal readers. Couple guys in the shop have them. I think they're around $10-20.

Donovan from Wisconsin

GeneMO · Jun 3, 2014

Well, I dont wear enough safety wear often enough. I have been to the ER at least twice to remove grinding metal from my eyeball, and I can't hear thunder cause of hours on an open 706 with rock and roll blasting from the radio just a few feet from my right ear. Years of shooting and chain saws didin't help neither.

Wish I had been more careful.

Gene

Nancy Howell · Jun 3, 2014

Under those circumstances, I would wear goggles, too.

My BIL has a lawn/property maintenance company. He never used to wear safety glasses until he married by sister. She demanded he wear them.

Not a week after he started wearing them, he looked back at the brush hog just as it flung a golf ball sized chunk of cement. It hit him on the safety glasses. Glasses broke, but he was unhurt. Made a believer out of him.

CGID · Jun 3, 2014

I've been involved in the shooting sports all my life. When I started out, ear-muffs were considered an extravagance; nice to have but I used the money to buy more ammo. My ears ring now. I'm used to it but I haven't had a moment's peace for 30 years. I've come around and use them now and eye protection, on the range and in my shop. Two years ago, after decades of shooting a semi-auto pistol without a hitch, a case ruptured, my face and glasses got chipped up. Nancy, no one can mount a rational argument against you. Go to the expense of buying the equipment, take the time to find it when you need it, endure the annoyance of wearing it and enjoy the end of the day.

Nancy Howell · Jun 3, 2014

I bought a couple of pairs with bifocal insets for about $10 each. Sorry, don't remember the name of the company, but found it by doing a google search for safety glasses.

dr sportster · Jun 3, 2014

I have been hit in the face very hard by a pebble when crossing the driveway. I find the trick with them at work is don't keep taking them on and off and touching them. When they are new they are clear to see through but the more you handle them the fogier they get.

wfw · Jun 3, 2014

a glass eye looks good but you cannot see out of it. be safe!!!

Red1 · Jun 3, 2014

Chicago Bridge and Iron used to send a safety guy around to all the crews...lecture on using earplugs..steel toed boots, etc.

And then he would show slides...where someone got a piece of steel in his eye (and didn't get it looked at right away)...time lapsed pics..first his eye is pretty bloodshot, then it starts to turn yellow..then a pic right before the surgeon takes it out..looks like a hard boiled egg..

usually didn't finish my lunch on those days...but made damn sure I wore my safety glasses...

Determined · Jun 3, 2014

A no brainer that saftey glasses do work.
The problem I had at the shop was people didn't give a chit about them, I was always finding a pair all scratched up on the floor, smashed under a tool on the bench, half melted cause someone didn't move them out of the way before grinding or welding on the bench etc. and it seemed I was buying a half a dozen pairs a month.
Finally went and bought a box full of the more expensive saftey glasses, fancy frames different shapes, colors etc the 10 - 20 dollar variety.
I had eveybody in the shop pick out a pair and told them they were theres to keep, even if they quit tommorow.
Given that little connection that the glasses belonged to them they actually took good care of them, most kept them in there pocket or toolbox.
Saved me a bunch of money and compliance for wearing them neared 100 percent.

Billy NY · Jun 3, 2014

In building construction, 3 common safety issues are always present, eye protection, hearing protection and fall protection. I used to conduct safety meetings, for eye protection I would compare an olive with a toothpick through it, to the unprotected human eye. Its that simple, if there is any risk, wear the appropriate and or approved protection. I used to cringe when I would see a person cutting a bundle of metal studs with a chop saw, no hearing protection, no eye protection...

Another reminder, how about when charging a battery, or dealing with same, eye protection and hearing protection may just save both of your main components, if it were to detonate, if the vent is clogged or conditions are right, same with inflating a tire. I keep ear plugs in my pocket at all times, in a small round case and wear safety sunglasses most of the time, more so during the warmer months, I keep spare in the tool chest, have one drawer dedicated to odds and ends, including safety apparel.

Makes me cringe when I see someone using a string trimmer, no safety glasses, like my neighbor, really calls for a face shield, I get hit all the time in the face, stings like heck, your eye won't fare as well as your skin. I should get a face shield, and wear safety glasses under that too.

Another one is while working in the brush, vegetation and similar, or cutting wood, chainsaw is loud, and theres always something flying, branches poking at you. I had a multiflora, pricker, rose bush, the stuff deer actually eat, run across my face and eyes while on the tractor at dusk, thought I had a scratched cornea, was a couple years back, thankfully not, healed up. I got the loader bucket into the roots of those bushes, which were on an embankment, dug em all out and transplanted them across the power line easement to each side of the gate as a natural fence, atv'ers just love that !

Greg K · Jun 3, 2014

You sure are right about them saving your eyes. I usually don't wear them but that's my own dam fault and no one else's. Hopefully some day I'll learn, and not with a major learning experience.

gtractorfan · Jun 3, 2014

We have several pin oak trees, they tend to put down small branches down to eye level. When riding a mower they may go un-noticed til they smack you in the face. I'm usually wearing sunglasses.

Anonymous-0 · Jun 3, 2014

Ya but you can remove it from your head and gross out little kids. Have to look on the bright side.

redforlife · Jun 3, 2014

Safety glasses are important in certain circumstances. Worked at a woodworking factory for 8 years. They were required there as you would expect. I ran long stuff through table saw there and used the radial arm saw alot. I wear perscription non-safety glasses all the time anyways. Not trying to bash the safety glasses thing here at all, but I would get more saw dust in my eyes wearing glasses with side shields versus glasses without. Had to be something to do with static electricity or the air flow the saw created or a combination of the two. The air would circle inside the glasses stiring the saw dust around for it to get in your eyes. The air would not do that near as bad without the side shields so less dust in your eyes. I would cheat and not use the side shields. Goggels would of probly been the smart thing to do, but company would not pay for goggles. I feel I saved alot of fingers by cheating (not using side shields) in this particular case. 8 years, no accidents, no eye injury's. The place closed for business and I dont work there anymore.

JerryS · Jun 3, 2014

I'm reasonably good about wearing glasses or a shield when I'm doing the obvious things---grinding, sawing, etc. I'm not so good about things like mowing; after all, the stuff goes out the side of the mower, not up at my eyes, right? Last week a wood chip came out of the mower, hit a tree and richocheted at just the right angle to smack me in the eye. Fortunately no damage but it hurt for a day or two.

That's the same eye that got whip-sawed by a small tree branch that my tractor pushed aside when I was going through a thicket a few years ago, shortly after I'd had Lasix. I now have a permanent mosquito-sized floater as memento of the occasion. Also, when I look up at the stars at night I see twice as many as you do.

Nancy Howell · Jun 3, 2014

Any limb that smacks James in the face has a date with the chain saw!

Anonymous-0 · Jun 3, 2014

Good analogy about olive/eyeball.. People around me laugh that I wear glasses around equipment, some used to call me "Mr. Paranoid" I just reply that I hope they like dogs, 'cause they might have a German Shepherd on a short leash..

bill mart · Jun 3, 2014

in my book hearing protection is a close second for mandatory p.p.e. It just takes longer for hearing loss to show up. Bill

bill mart · Jun 3, 2014

waiting for bret4207 to chime in, last week he gave me a hard time when I commented on a couple of photos of kids on tractors and I hoped they were wearing hearing protection. Bill

rustyacres sd · Jun 3, 2014

WHAT did you say? LOL

massey333 · Jun 3, 2014

I'am with Leroy on your pricing Nancy,most if not all of your cheap($10-$50)glasses are not approved in or for factory usage.Most all approved glasses with correction are $300 and up.Maybe better then nothing,but also can give false security if really needed.

Rich_WI · Jun 3, 2014

The last batch of safety sunglasses I bought (from Grainger) were $1.77 each. Z-87 rated so they can be worn anywhere. The yellow ones were a little more, $2.15 or so.

With prices that cheap, there is no reason to not be wearing them. Just bite the bullet, order a couple dozen and be done with it.

showcrop · Jun 3, 2014

Another safety item is high visibility shirt or vest. Especially in an excavation sort of setting where trucks and equipment are frequently backing up. A friends father was backed over and killed on a road construction project. No one that I know can look in both mirrors at the same time.

T in NE · Jun 3, 2014

My uncle pulled the NH 411 with the open-station 756. Popped a tire, looked back to see what hydraulic line blew, and it threw a rock at the same time. He had to wear sunglasses inside even for several weeks, and no lifting. Dad made one round finishing that field, unhooked, and went and got the 1066 with the cab.
That diskbine never went on another open-station tractor.

rpirkle1 · Jun 3, 2014

I'm with Nancy on this one... and being an efficient minded person, I simply pick up my sun glasses at Home Depot (or Lowe's) when I break a pair or they get scratched to much to use. Keep a good/newer set in the truck for driving and wearing in public... and the older set in with the tools for mowing etc. Not necessarily fashion conscious... just don't want to have to hunt a safety set when I need them... and this way they're always handy.

sammydwm · Jun 4, 2014

Any place I have worked at required both glasses and face shield when operating a grinder.

Safety glasses with reader inserts can be founf at Walmart for less than 10 bucks very handy

Bret4207 · Jun 4, 2014

(quoted from post at 13:18:22 06/03/14) waiting for bret4207 to chime in, last week he gave me a hard time when I commented on a couple of photos of kids on tractors and I hoped they were wearing hearing protection. Bill

Yeah Bill, an old Fergy with a couple of kids happily learning to plow and you accused the parents of child abuse. Safety Nazis just love to hand out advice. Most of the rest of us are just too busy minding our own darn business to assume we're better parents than everyone else on the planet.

Billy NY · Jun 4, 2014

When you think about how delicate the eye really is and how necessary it is, I just cannot see taking chances, and I try like heck to get people who take their vision for granted to understand that, or I used to when conducting safety meetings

GregCO · Jun 4, 2014

They are cheap insurance for sure. I am the EHS guy at work and people hate it when I walk through the shop. When I find a PPE problem I make a big deal out of it and some, not all of the people challenge the fact we require them. Some will come up with ten reasons why they should not be required in some areas. I can only come up with two assuming they haven't already lost the use of one. I keep a pretty good collection of injury pics on my phone and show them to them. Generally they get it. Some use the old "I can't see through them" story just because they are all beat up. I just tell them we provide them for free and they can get new ones as often as they need. If they require prescription we offer them for free as well to all employees that can provide a prescription. Pretty good gig if you ask me. We also provide mono-goggles, and face shields. All you want. I have boxes full. I even tell people to take them home for the wife and kids. Gloves (nice ones) of all styles and types, hard hats, welding leathers, welding helmets, ear plugs, knee pads, sleeves, respirators, dust masks, you name it and it is all free for the taking. We even give everybody one pair of steel toe shoe's or boots every year for free up to $150.00. Pick out what you want.

I had a long time (35 year) employee get upset the other day when I called him out on a LOTO issue working on a running machine. He held up his hand and told me that the one missing finger he had was the only problem he has ever had in all his years and he knew what he was doing. Really? He lost his finger on a LOTO issue many years ago. I guess he is bullet proof now in his mind.

Greg.

RustyS · Jun 4, 2014

Keep in mind that Safety People can go too far. Last plant I worked at the Safety Supervisor required fall protection with 6 foot lanyard for anything over four foot. Nice to add a trip hazard to the daily grind of working on trailers. He recommended tying off to the side rail of the trailer. probably not good at math

john *.?-!.* cub owner · Jun 5, 2014

when I was in my teens I used this rig to sharpen posts for both us and the neighbors.

Dad always told me to be sure i wore safety glasses. 50 years ago the only ones we had were Dad's old tanker glasses left over from WW2. They were pretty beat up and scuffed, and I hated those things, but I wore them. I was sharpening cedar posts one day using the smaller buzz saw, when it ripped out a splinter about 8 inches long and dead centered my right eye end ways. The splinter broke against the glasses, and the broken end also hit them. Nobody had to remind me to wear those glasses after that.

In case you are wondering, yes, that thing is as dangerous as it looks, but we all had a healthy respect, and I have never known anyone to get hurt on it except for one kid (me) that was messing around it one time and his hand with a glove on caught on a rough splice in the belt, and went under the idler pulley. I didn't actually get hurt, just bad scared.

OT-why wear safety glasses?

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