How often do you wear eye protection around your home? If you’re like most Americans, the answer is probably close to never. When considering eye safety at home, you may want to think about adding eye protection to some of your daily tasks.
That’s because nearly half of all eye injuries occur at home while doing most mundane projects. That’s why they’re called accidents. And in fact, only 35% of people say they wear eye protection at home. So, let’s take a few minutes to cover the most common eye-related injuries that occur at home or in the yard.

Eye Safety at Home
Eye safety at home is as essential as anywhere else. Surprisingly cooking and cleaning around the home cause an average of 125,000 eye injuries every year. Household chemicals and hot cooking oil can splash in your eyes, causing a burn. Additionally, some eye injuries occur while decorating your home. If you are screwing or nailing something into concrete or brick, particles can jump from the surface and enter your eye, causing severe pain.

And while some eye injuries can occur from a simple slip or fall, others can happen due to a curling iron being accidentally held too close to your eye or even a champagne cork traveling across the room and hitting someone in the eye.

Eye Injuries in the Garage
While working in the garage, accidents can easily occur when using hand or power tools. The user can get distracted or simply make a mistake. Fragments, dust or other eye irritants from the work at hand can quickly make their way to the eye area or into your eye itself. Other common eye injuries happen while working with solvents or chemicals and when securing bungee cords (which can quickly snap back and hit you in the eye).

Eye Injury Risks in the Yard
Most yard-related eye injuries occur when taking care of the lawn or yard. Rocks and other objects can bounce up when mowing the yard, trimming weeds, edging the driveway or clipping hedges and bushes. In addition, pool chemicals can splash back up in your face while pouring, causing a chemical burn to one or both eyes.

Dr. Fruchtman highly encourages you to use the utmost precaution to prevent injuries that can affect your eyesight for the rest of your life. Wear eye protection whenever possible. An abundance of caution in advance is always better than a trip to the emergency room or an emergency trip to our office.

In summary, here is a quick reference list of common eye injuries in the home.

• Household products and chemicals, such as oven cleaner or bleach
• Hot grease and oil spatters
• Opening a champagne bottle
• Drilling screws or hammering nails into hard surfaces, such as concrete or brick
• Curling irons, straightening irons, and other hot objects
• Slips and falls due to stairs, railings, rugs, etc.
• Power or hand tools
• Solvents and chemicals
• Dust particles, chemical overspray, and other eye irritants
• Bungee cords
• Mowing the lawn
• Power trimmer or edger
• Clipping hedges and bushes

Eye Safety at Home is as essential as anywhere else.