People are not excellent and infrequently make mistakes. We take shortcuts, neglect methods to do things, or turn out to be distracted at occasions after we shouldn’t. In most features of our lives, these aren’t things that have dire consequences. At work, nonetheless, surrounded by hazards, these types of errors can alter lives, even end them. So, though human beings are not excellent, we have to make our safety programs as near good as we can.
PPE Focus: Face Shields
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an aspect of safety the place individuals tend to make many mistakes, and for a variety of reasons. Often, we think that the mere wearing of PPE makes us proof against injury. With as a lot emphasis as we place on eye protection and head protection, will we lose sight (no pun meant) of protecting our faces? Actually, eye protection is important, since eye injuries can lead to everlasting blindness. Equally essential is head protection, preventing deadly head accidents the best that we can. Face injuries could not seem as significant a priority. They don’t have the quick, permanent, and probably deadly consequences of the others. With that said, though, an employer’s duty is to protect all components of their staff, together with their faces.
That responsibility includes identifying tasks the place face shields ought to be used, providing face shields for employees to use, training them to make use of face shields appropriately, and to correct staff when face shields are used incorrectly or not used at all. The primary parts are easy. Our staff will make mistakes. Correcting those mistakes and enforcing your company’s face shield requirements is an essential a part of an effective PPE program. Unfortunately, too typically, this aspect of the PPE program is just not enforced till after an worker is injured.
Situations to Use Face Shields
Consider the following situations where face shields should have been used, and the consequences for the injured workers and their employers.
An worker was filling ammonia nurse tanks from a bulk plant. The employee was distracted while closing the valves, and mistakenly turned the wrong valve, causing a pressure launch in the line. The release of anhydrous ammonia splashed on the worker’s face. The employee was hospitalized for chemical burns on and around the face.
An employee was putting in a water pipe at a multifamily residential construction project. The worker initially was working an excavator, then climbed down from the excavator to chop a 10-inch water pipe with a lower-off saw. The noticed kicked back and struck the employee’s face. Co-workers called emergency companies, who transported the employee to the hospital. The worker was admitted to the hospital and handled for facial lacerations that extended from underneath the left eye to underneath the jaw.
In the first scenario, the worker suffered critical chemical burns. A face shield would have significantly reduced the chemical exposure, the extent of the chemical burns, and probably could have prevented any ammonia from splashing on the employee’s face. Yes, the worker turned the unsuitable valve, however does that mean that the employer is absolved of all accountability for this incident? Of course not. The actual fact remains that the employer ought to provide workers filling ammonia nurse tanks with face shields, train staff to use the face shields accurately, and require them to use them when performing this task. Then they must continually and persistently implement the face shield requirements. Doing so would have provided additional protection to the employee, even from the effects of the worker’s own actions.
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