Eye Safety & Safety Glasses

Eye Safety & Safety Glasses

Question 1:
If you are a safety, health, or environmental professional, or even a certified professional in this field, do you know that you are required by law to fit-test workers when you give them safety equipment glasses? If you did not, well, your company just violated the OSHA or State OSHA regulation.

Really, I do not know of many SH&E professionals who have followed the requirement of fit testing safety glasses by using a tool to ensure that their workers' safety glasses fit. But then again, there are a lot of “CERTIFIED” safety, health, and environmental professionals out there who just took a test to become certified.

Here is what OSHA states:

Hazard assessment and equipment selection.
1910.132 (d)(1) The employer shall assess the workplace to determine if hazards are present, or are likely to be present, which necessitate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). If such hazards are present, or likely to be present, the employer shall:

1910.132 (d)(1)(i) Select, and have each affected employee use, the types of PPE that will protect the affected employee from the hazards identified in the hazard assessment;

1910.132 (d)(1)(ii) Communicate selection decisions to each affected employee; and,

1910.132 (d)(1)(iii) Select PPE that properly fits each affected employee.

1910.132 (d)(2) The employer shall verify that the required workplace hazard assessment has been performed through a written certification that identifies the workplace evaluated; the person certifying that the evaluation has been performed; the date(s) of the hazard assessment; and, that identifies the document as a certification of hazard assessment.

For more information on protecting your eyes, your family members' eyes, and your children’s eyes when you give them eye protection to wear, please read this information from 3M. https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1469148O/3m-eyewear-fit-test-system-procedure-protocol-en.PDF

This also happens with the wearing of head protection. Most companies and also construction companies, and their workers today wear the wrong type of head protection, usually it is a type one that only protects the worker from small objects hitting the top of the helmet, and not a type two (2) that gives the worker protection from the top, front, side, and rear. But guess what, many have never even read the label inside the helmet that tells them this information.

Federal and State OSHA inspectors have just changed to the new type 2 head protection to protect themselves. Do not let them catch you wearing the wrong type.

Mr. David Whelan, Editor / Owner of The Plastic Fabricators & Distributors magazine, advertises this professional association, The International Association of Safety, Health & Environmental Professionals (IASHEP) in our magazine. IASHEP provides a free certified personal protective equipment course to its members for free. This certified course is valued at $795.00. IASHEP membership is $100.00 per year, and part of your membership fees goes to their two charities, St. Jude Research Hospital for Children and Tunnel To Towers. To join IASHEP, please follow this link.

www.podojilconsulting.com

Go to the membership portion of the website, and you should see the sign-up form to follow this link.
https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/13a5b4ff-b448-43c3-88d0-641c5bf7be15/downloads/annual%20iashepmembership%202020%20-%20Fillable.pdf?ver=1701462397022

If you want to take the Certified Personal Protective Equipment Specialist Course (CPPES) course and you are a member of IASHEP, please go to the website, download the course registration form, and send it to us.

If you have a special topic in mind, let us know, and we will write a Safety Solutions for you. Need a question answered about OSHA or machine safety, or other safety & health-related matters? Let us know; we have professionals on staff who can help you. Remember, this magazine is your source for information. Welcome to the year 2024.