Half of Eye Injuries Happen at Home

Injuries to the eye are no laughing matter, they can  be annoying at best and all the way to very painful. It's always good to protect the eyes with safety glasses or other approved safety device. Many people think that construction workers or other type of profession that works a lot with tools are primarily at risk for eye injury. Not the case. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the American Society of Ocular Trauma (ASOT) over 1.5 million eye injuries happen every year in the home. That is half of all eye injuries.

Of the most dangerous places, the lawn and garden rank number one. The reason is from lawnmowers tossing debris into the air. Those rocks, clippings or twigs can lodge themselves in the eye and cause serious damage. Household products like cleaning supplies, makeup, dinner utensils, scissors and hair brushes are another big source of eye injury. Kids now are about 20 percent of the total eye injury total, so it is more important than ever to teach children about not running in the house with potentially dangerous objects and play away from someone mowing the lawn.

It's a common misconception that safety glasses have to be "nerdy" or "dorky." There are plenty of options available now that look fashionable and offer the same type of protection needed to keep eyes healthy. So those glasses you wore in 7th grade chemistry-



Can now look more like this-



A whopping 90 percent of the nearly 3 million yearly injuries could have been prevented. By being a little more careful and wearing the proper safety glasses, the statistics for eye injury will plummet. If you have any questions about safety glasses, get in touch with an eye care expert.

Learn more about eye safety at All About Vision.