Eye Hazards in Industry: Extent, Cause, and Means of Prevention

Abstract

The chances which American workmen take with such irreplaceable organs as eyes are a constant source of amazement to physicians and safety workers. Eye hazards in industry are in the majority of cases unnecessary. The author, Mr. Louis Resnick of the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, who lived and died fighting this tragic waste, has assembled an overwhelming indictment against American industry and American workmen who persist in being careless about eye safety. According to his estimate, a painful eye injury occurs every thirty seconds, a total of more than three hundred thousand annually costing some $200,000,000 and more for all the attendant charges for treatment, compensation and rehabilitation which inevitably accompany these disabling accidents. Ninety-eight per cent of traumatic injuries to the eye are preventable, mainly through the simple device of protective goggles or eye shields. All the reliable methods of control are included in this book.