Eye Health
Workplace Eye Safety
American Academy of Ophthalmology
P.O. Box 7424, San Francisco, CA 94120

• Each working day in the U.S. over 2,000 employees sustain job-related eye injuries.
• Workplace injury is a leading cause of ocular trauma, visual loss, disability and blindness.
• Existing legislation and educational programs are not enough to prevent the high number of work site injuries.
• Up to 90% of all job-related eye injuries can be prevented by the proper implementation of an effective eye care program.
• The burden of major injuries is reflected in years of visual disability of the victim, in huge hospital costs, in time lost from productive work, and frequently in litigation.
• Construction work in general, and automobile repair in particular, carry particularly high risks for severe eye injuries.
• Many severe eye injuries are preventable through the regular use of appropriate protective eye wear, which is unlikely to occur until high-risk work sites make such eye wear available and encourage their use. At many work sites, protective eye wear is not made available.
• The critical components of an occuplational eye care program are:
• vision screening;
• determining vision requirements and eye hazards of a job;
• requiring appropriate protective and corrective eyewear.
• Engineering safeguards, such as a modification of manufacturing processes, can also help protect workers.
• Adequate protections must be taken for all who enter a work site with eye hazardous areas, not just the worker.
• An Eye M.D. is a key member of the occupational health team, which consists of physicians, nurses, safety personnel, and others.