Let me ask you a couple of questions.
Do you wear glasses? Not do you need corrective eye wear; specifically, do you wear glasses?
Do you wear safety goggles when doing routine household maintenance jobs like using a screwdriver?
Chances are if you said yes to the first question you did not say yes to the second.
I recently heard a local DJ discussing this very issue. He was a lifelong glasses wearer who had recently had Lasik surgery. Not long after he was putting together something at home using an electric screwdriver and he over tightened a bit, causing small curls of metal to fly off the screw and, you guessed it, straight into his now uncovered eye.
I said uncovered rather than unprotected for a reason. Too many people who wear glasses, myself frequently among them, don’t wear safety goggles or glasses when working around the house because they assume their glasses provide protection from small flying objects and dust. They might, if I still wore the frighteningly large frames I wore in 1984 rather than a pair of slimmer frames more in keeping with today’s styles. Okay, not really, but I can’t help thinking it when I see those old pictures.
The fact is, even the biggest, most over-sized eyeglass frames around still don’t protect your eyes the way a pair of safety goggles do. Yes, goggles. I know a lot of people like safety glasses; they’re big enough to fit over regular eyeglasses if you wear them, most have extended sides to protect the sides of your face from debris, and some have extended tops as well, to close off the gap between the frames and the brow bone. My husband wears safety glasses (when I nag him, lol) and has been lucky thus far.
Me?
Well, I ruined my parents’ dinner plans when I was 5 by getting playground gravel in my eye while playing until it was time to go to the babysitter.
When I was 22 I went in for one of my OB check-ups for my first daughter with an eye patch. I had been camping the week before and gotten sand under a contact lens the day I left. I was on various airplanes for about 10 hours before I was able to get to an ER in my hometown to be treated for my scratched cornea.
All of this is my long-winded way of saying I, when I remember, wear safety goggles because of their all-around seal to the face.
Whichever route you decide to go, remember, safety glasses/goggles aren’t just for woodcutting (the time when most people remember them). All sorts of household activities present eye hazards that we may not think about every day. Things like:
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Yard Work. This is especially true of any yard work involving power tools like a bag-less mower, any type of blower, power saws (like a chain saw or electric pruning saw), or mulchers/shredders.
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Painting. Have you ever gotten latex paint on your face in or near your eye? You’ve probably noticed by now I’m a bit accident-prone when it comes to my eyes, so, yes, I have done this and, yes, it is really painful.
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Wallpapering. Yep, wallpapering, and triply so for wallpaper removal since it usually leaves a lot of dust in the air. And, yes, I am speaking from unfortunate personal experience on this one, too.
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Cleaning the cat box. This is a gritty, dusty job and you don’t want to end up with that in your eyes.
I’m sure there are tons more, but that’s all I can come up with off the top of my head.
Remember, wear your safety glasses or goggles and protect those peepers!