People are not perfect and infrequently make mistakes. We take shortcuts, forget how to do things, or grow to be distracted at times once we shouldn’t. In most aspects of our lives, these aren’t things which have dire consequences. At work, nonetheless, surrounded by hazards, these types of mistakes can alter lives, even finish them. So, regardless that human beings aren’t perfect, we need to make our safety programs as close to perfect as we can.
PPE Focus: Face Shields
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a facet of safety where folks tend to make many mistakes, and for a variety of reasons. Usually, we think that the mere wearing of PPE makes us resistant to injury. With as a lot emphasis as we place on eye protection and head protection, can we lose sight (no pun supposed) of protecting our faces? Certainly, eye protection is essential, since eye injuries can lead to everlasting blindness. Equally necessary is head protection, preventing fatal head accidents one of the best that we can. Face injuries may not appear as significant a priority. They don’t have the immediate, permanent, and probably deadly consequences of the others. With that said, although, an employer’s accountability is to protect all parts of their staff, including their faces.
That accountability consists of identifying tasks where face shields must be used, providing face shields for employees to use, training them to use face shields appropriately, and to right employees when face shields are used incorrectly or not used at all. The primary parts are easy. Our employees will make mistakes. Correcting those mistakes and enforcing your organization’s face shield requirements is an essential a part of an efficient PPE program. Unfortunately, too typically, this side of the PPE program is not enforced until after an employee is injured.
Conditions to Use Face Shields
Consider the following situations where face shields should have been used, and the results 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 incorrect valve, inflicting a pressure release within the line. The release of anhydrous ammonia splashed on the worker’s face. The employee was hospitalized for chemical burns on and across the face.
An worker was putting in a water pipe at a multifamily residential development project. The worker initially was working an excavator, then climbed down from the excavator to chop a ten-inch water pipe with a cut-off saw. The noticed kicked back and struck the employee’s face. Co-workers called emergency services, who transported the worker to the hospital. The employee was admitted to the hospital and treated for facial lacerations that extended from underneath the left eye to underneath the jaw.
Within the first state of affairs, the worker suffered serious chemical burns. A face shield would have significantly reduced the chemical exposure, the extent of the chemical burns, and presumably may have prevented any ammonia from splashing on the employee’s face. Sure, the employee turned the unsuitable valve, but does that mean that the employer is absolved of all accountability for this incident? After all not. The fact remains that the employer should provide employees filling ammonia nurse tanks with face shields, train employees to make use of the face shields appropriately, and require them to use them when performing this task. Then they must frequently and persistently implement the face shield requirements. Doing so would have provided additional protection to the worker, even from the effects of the employee’s own actions.
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