Eye protection in the workplace is especially important! Data shows that approximately 13 million people suffer from occupational-related vision disorders. World Sight Day will be held on Thursday, October 12, 2023, under the slogan „Love your eyes at work”.

Good eyesight, both in physical and mental work, is very important. Vision is an integral part of safety and productivity at work, both for the individual employee and for the safety of other colleagues. Unfortunately, many employees struggle with eye diseases and constantly worsening defects. The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) indicate that approximately 13 million people suffer from occupational-related vision disorders.

The organization’s reports show that an estimated 3.5 million eye injuries occur in the workplace each year. This constitutes 1% of all non-fatal accidents at work.

Employees with visual impairments are 30% less likely to be employed compared to people without such impairments. This significantly reduces the chances of people with eye defects and diseases on the labor market.

Let’s protect employees’ eyesight – appeals to employers responsible for occupational health and safety in workplaces, in the report of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). As indicated:

Good eyesight enables and improves almost every aspect of our daily lives. The simple act of walking from place to place is guided by visual cues about objects, terrain, and other people. Our ability to drive vehicles, fly planes safely, and transport goods depends on vision. Face-to-face communication, content is not conveyed solely through speech, but is also interpreted through non-verbal signals such as gestures, smiles and facial expressions.

Employer activities aimed at protecting employees’ eyesight should refer to aspects such as:

• preventing exposure to specific hazards in every workplace;
• protecting workers’ existing eye health;
• providing a system that takes into account workers’ naturally occurring vision loss in risk assessment;
• informing employees about hazards that may affect their eye health;
• employer social activities, financial support and eye health programs.

World Sight Day has been celebrated annually since 2000 on the 2nd Thursday of October. This holiday is organized by the international coalition VISION 2020, which brings together 26 organizations, including the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

The Central Institute for Labor Protection indicates that, especially at workplaces where the eyes and face are exposed to chemical agents and dust, especially those that irritate or pose a risk of serious damage to the eyes, it is advisable to use eye and face protection equipment, e.g. whether the safety goggles are equipped with a rigid frame enabling the installation of a protective lens and a soft frame that fits around the perimeter of the face, covering the eyes and the ocular area.

At positions equipped with screen monitors, an employee operating a screen monitor is entitled to a break of at least 5 minutes, included in the working time, after each hour of working with a screen monitor. It is not allowed to accumulate these breaks.

This break is granted to a person who works at a computer regularly, for half of the full time. She is entitled to it if she is not allowed to combine work related to operating the monitor with other work that does not burden the eyesight and is performed in other body positions, while not exceeding an hour of uninterrupted work at the monitor.

In many conventions and recommendations, the International Labor Organization places particular emphasis on safe and hygienic working conditions, on the protection of workers’ health, on prevention, on training activities undertaken by the employer, on the provision of appropriate personal protective equipment, on the reduction of accidents at work and occupational diseases that may occur in the workplace. The safety of workers’ health, including eye health and pattern protection, indirectly results from the preamble to the ILO Constitution (1919), which states that it is particularly important to „protect the worker against diseases, illnesses and injuries arising from his employment” this protection is one of the improvements , which are “urgently needed.”

For this reason, the ILO has developed over 40 international labor standards focusing on occupational health and safety and the working environment, the most important of which are: the Occupational Safety and Health Convention of 1981 (No. 155) and the Occupational Safety and Health Convention of 2006 (No. 187 ).

Source: https://kadry.infor.pl/bhp/bezpieczenstwo-pracy/6303585,ochrona-oczu-w-miejscu-pracy.html

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.