YES!!!! We have seen MANY patients in our clinic with preventable eye injuries. The list of damaging agents includes, but is not limited to: fish hooks, pencil points, raspberry canes, ceiling tile particles, insects, paper, exfoliating beads, tree branches, hockey pucks, chemicals, drywall and fingernails.
For people who wear glasses, wearing protective eyewear is relatively easy. Most injuries from day to day activities can be avoided with just regular glasses. Even contact lenses can also be quite effective in protecting against eye injuries in many cases.
If you do not wear glasses, you should consider wearing clear safety glasses or sunglasses for activities like gardening, home renovations, and many sports.
Of course many employers require workers to wear approved safety glasses. We have very strict CSA Standards (Z94.3) for these glasses. However, a big problem is that workers don’t always wear their protective eyewear. In fact, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind reports that over 700 workers sustain eye injuries EVERY DAY in Canada. Ninety percent of the injuries are preventable.
Some eye injuries are just an inconvenience, but some are blinding. PLEASE remember to wear protective eyewear!
