Persons are not excellent and often make mistakes. We take shortcuts, neglect how you can do things, or develop into distracted at times once we shouldn’t. In most points of our lives, these should not things that have dire consequences. At work, nevertheless, surrounded by hazards, these types of mistakes can alter lives, even end them. So, despite the fact that human beings are not excellent, we have to make our safety programs as near perfect as we can.
PPE Focus: Face Shields
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a facet of safety where people are inclined to make many mistakes, and for a wide range of reasons. Usually, we think that the mere wearing of PPE makes us proof against injury. With as much emphasis as we place on eye protection and head protection, will we lose sight (no pun supposed) of protecting our faces? Definitely, eye protection is vital, since eye accidents can lead to permanent blindness. Equally vital is head protection, preventing fatal head accidents the perfect that we can. Face accidents may not seem as significant a priority. They don’t have the fast, permanent, and doubtlessly deadly consequences of the others. With that said, although, an employer’s accountability is to protect all elements of their employees, including their faces.
That accountability includes identifying tasks the place face shields must be used, providing face shields for workers to use, training them to make use of face shields correctly, and to appropriate staff when face shields are used incorrectly or not used at all. The first components are easy. Our employees will make mistakes. Correcting those errors and implementing your organization’s face shield requirements is an essential part of an effective PPE program. Sadly, too usually, this side of the PPE program is just not enforced till after an worker is injured.
Situations to Use Face Shields
Consider the next conditions where face shields should have been used, and the implications for the injured workers and their employers.
An worker was filling ammonia nurse tanks from a bulk plant. The worker was distracted while closing the valves, and mistakenly turned the improper valve, inflicting a pressure release in the line. The discharge of anhydrous ammonia splashed on the employee’s face. The worker was hospitalized for chemical burns on and around the face.
An worker was installing a water pipe at a multifamily residential development project. The employee initially was working an excavator, then climbed down from the excavator to chop a ten-inch water pipe with a lower-off saw. The noticed kicked back and struck the worker’s face. Co-workers called emergency services, who transported the employee to the hospital. The employee was admitted to the hospital and handled for facial lacerations that extended from underneath the left eye to underneath the jaw.
Within the first scenario, the employee suffered serious chemical burns. A face shield would have significantly reduced the chemical exposure, the extent of the chemical burns, and possibly could have prevented any ammonia from splashing on the worker’s face. Sure, the employee turned the unsuitable valve, however does that mean that the employer is absolved of all responsibility for this incident? Of course not. The very fact remains that the employer ought to provide workers filling ammonia nurse tanks with face shields, train workers to use the face shields correctly, and require them to use them when performing this task. Then they need to frequently and constantly implement the face shield requirements. Doing so would have provided additional protection to the employee, even from the effects of the employee’s own actions.
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