About 1,000 eye injuries occur in American workplaces each day.
Potential eye health hazards occur in every kind of workplace, though injuries are most often found among craft workers: mechanics, repairers, carpenters, and plumbers. More than one-third of injured workers are assemblers, sanders, grinding machine operators and laborers. Almost half are in manufacturing and slightly more than 20 percent in construction.
Flying particles, falling objects, or sparks caused 70 percent of the accidents. Most flying objects were smaller than a pin head and reported to be traveling faster than a hand-thrown object when the accident occurred. Contact with chemicals caused one-fifth of the eye injuries.
Others were caused by objects swinging from an attached position. Many workers should have been wearing glasses with side eye shields.
Eye health for office workers is always a concern, with eye strain and dry eye being among the most common problems. Almost half of computer users have symptoms of eye strain at one time or another.
Resting the eyes frequently, as well as frequent blinking while using the computer, can help.
Some symptoms can be relieved by a combination of correcting workstation conditions and posture, using correct eyewear, anti-glare screens, and moistening the eyes with eye drops.
