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Safety Glasses, Warning and question

surplusjohn

Diamond
Joined
Apr 11, 2002
Location
Syracuse, NY USA
just a reminder. Friday afternoon I was scrapping out some machinery and had a new 2 inch yellow tie down strap hooked to a long machine that I was end lifting into a scrap dumpster. When I went to releas the strap it flew back and the steel end hoop [flat style] got me in the eye. ouch! it was literally like a hammer blow. after appropiate remarks to the gods I checked it out wiped some of the blood off, and had to work another 15 or 20 minuets before I could leave the place. I had to drive by the NY state fair grounds where there were several State Troopers directing traffic, two of them noticed the damage, stared but did not stop me. I drove home, took a shower then went to urgent care. The bovine like triage nurse asked me what the problem was, then which eye [?] when she finally looked at me she jumped! the dr took a look and immediately called an eye surgen who was in the same building. he took me imediately and gave me a through exam and 20 stiches. There is internal bleeding and he said another fraction of an inch I would had lost the eye. and if it starts bleeding again I could still loose it. Anyways, it is doing fine and I am sure I will be OK.
I am offering this up as a cautionary tale. I was not waring my safty glasses, which would had protected me, perhaps cut my cheek instead of my eye.
Question is, I am shopping for saftey glasses with reading lenses in them, Elvex seems to be the ticket. Does anyone have any comments on these or alternatives?
Thanks, PS, I will not be posting a pic of the damage!
 
I had a nasty experience a few months ago...A nice hot,thick,blue chip of 4140 went under my safety glasses, from the bottom, and fused its self across my eyelid...of course, due to the safety glasses, i couldnt get the chip off as fast as I would have liked...
 
That's always on my mind. I have a dozen pairs of safety glasses and goggles one set at each machine, and a couple on my desk, they are scattered all over so there is always a set in reach.
 
If you normally wear glasses get them made in safety glass. If by chance you are getting by on the cheap with reading glasses you bought in Wal-Mart you are taking a terrible risk. An eye exam every year or two can prevent you from going blind in the future. There are several eye conditions that can be managed well if discovered early. Some like glaucoma have no obvious symptoms until it is too late. I have had it for 25 years, had it treated and still have no eyeglass restriction on my driver's license at age 72.
 
Hope your eye heals. That is scarey.

What I wear are uvex safety goggles. Big heavy things that wrap around your face, and cover your glasses. My glasses are one of the high index plastics, and shatter resistant. I wear sepearate reading glasses and distance glasses, so I always have a pair of glasses on. I have gotten into the habit of looking over my distance glasses (I am nearsighted) to look as something close, but I keep reminding myself that leaves me with no protection for my eyes.

Thermo1
 
thanks, it is scarry now thinking back on it. Funny that after the initial hit I had no pain even when he was stiching me up and was calm, probably a measure of the seriousness of the injury. It seems instintive that some humans react pretty calmly to serious situations. Last night I thought about that when watching Pearl Harbor, when Evelyn the nurse was freaking out at the begining of the attack but then collected herself. I bet a capable gal like her would not of freaked at all but instead she would of taken charge immediatly and had goen swiming in all that blood without a second thought.
Anyways I need reading glasses for any close work, but my far vision is 20/20. BTW I had Lasik mono laser eye surgery, which gave me the 20/20 but also then required me to use the reading glasses where before my reading vision was marginal.
 
Ron,
Yeah, you may be right. But, I like to have corrected vision for my whole field of view, and don't mind switching glasses. What I will probably do is get a pair of heavy duty safety glasses, with side shields, with my reading prescription. Those of us who have been nearsighted most of our lives get pretty good walking around with poor distance vision. Change out of the reading glasses for any extended distance vision.

Thermo1
 
Count me in as another one who is now peering
*over* the distance glasses at stuff up close,
thereby leaving my eyes unprotected.

At work I've tried to compensate by simply
leaving lots of Uvex safty glasses around so
I'm never more than a few feet from a pair.


I'm rapidy reaching the conclusion that a) I am
probably less dangerous to myself wandering
around without the distance glasses on, than
working in a shop without any glasses on, and
b) it was a really, really big mistake to make
so much fun of my wife when she had to get
reading glasses.

Jim
 
Jim,
Regarding your point b)
I have brother 18 months younger than me. He used to make fun of my looking over my glasses. Recently he stopped doing this.

Thermo1
 
I've always worn 'em since £5 on safety glasses is cheaper than an eyepatch and no depth perception

On that subject I've always worn my steel toed boots since while lying in hospital with 2 broken legs(another story), they wheeled in a 17 yr kid who'd been working on a demolition site and was cutting down steel frames, and yupp a big hunk of steel fell across his foot, shortening it by a couple of inches.
Doc told him if he'd been wearing boots instead of sneakers he would have got away with 5 broken toes but no permanent damage.

The real bummer for the kid was my lawyer turned upp in relation to my busted legs and the kid asked him how much compensation he'd get.
My lawyer asked if he'd been told to wear safety boots, and if the answer was yes, he'd only get 50% of the the amount of compensation he would have got.

Boris
 
John,
Best wishes on your recovery. I wear safety glasses the whole time I'm at work. Some of the guys remove theirs at break time and forget to put them back on. Not me, as soon as I walk in to the shop I put them on and when I go out the door, they are left on top of the pop machine.
ready for the next morning. I always harp on the younger guys for not wearing glasses , or wearing them on top of their head.

When the young guys come around and ask if they can watch, I tell them only if they wear safety glasses and stay out of arms reach of me.

Let us know how you are doing, John.


Jackal
 
Thanks for the sobering reminder to be safe John. In a one man shop it's easy to get impatient and take shortcuts I shouldn't. All of us hands-on guys shudder at the thought of lost vision. I hope your eye recovers nicely.

I have brother 18 months younger than me. He used to make fun of my looking over my glasses. Recently he stopped doing this.
Yeah...my little brother USED to make fun of my receding hairline.... :D
 
Just a note re safety glasses:
Look closely at what you get and make sure the frames are rugged enough to stand a hit. I recently bought glasses, not intended for shop use and the sales woman assured me that they were safety glasses also. I've used safety glasses for much of the work I've done for a living and these were definately not up to safety standards; now that I think of it I dropped them on the floor recently and the frame broke just from a 4' fall.

Ken
 
Yep, the stories are blood-curdling.

Here's another one, that illustrates you need
to wear glasses when working on vehicles or
machinery, even if there's no obvious reason,
that is, drilling, grinding, turning, etc:

We had a flat tire on the family car. I took
my daughter out and showed her how to fix it.
Removed the wheel (hey, there's no *jack* in
this car!!!) and went to plug it.

Took out the nail, and tried to get the plug
reamer in there to clean out the hole. Didn't
want to go in there, so we gooped it up with
some rubber cement to lubricate it. *Still*
didn't want to go in there. So we pumped up the
tire a bit, to make the carcass stiffer, and
the thing went right in.

Great, so we opened up the hole, and were
going to put in the plug. I pulled out the
reamer, and yep, a big slug of glop shot out,
right into my daugther's eye. She had of course
been watching the entire process intently, from
close up.

I felt like an huge idiot. I absolutely require
her to wear safety glasses at *all* times in
the shop, or in a lab. And yet without thinking
(chemical use, compressed air, vehicles...)
I forgot to insist that time.

Fortunately her blink reflex was amazing, she
got the rubber cement all over the *outside*
of her eyelid, and we immediately stopped and
washed it off. There was no damage.

So the protective eyewear rule has been
extended to anytime vehicles are being worked
on, and also to the garage. No exceptions.

Jim
 








 
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