Celebrate National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness Week Every Year for July 4
National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness Week
Safety goggles poster from U.S. National Archives and Records Administration; Public domain
Summer activities, and especially fireworks associated with Independence Day, can increase the risk for eye injuries. So as a reminder to protect your eyes, the week that includes July 4 each year is National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness Week.
An eye injury can affect your vision for the rest of your life. So protect your eyes and vision as well as you can.
Eye Injury Prevention for Children
Much of this advice really applies to everybody. But kids don’t think about injuries until after they happen. So it’s especially important you do all you can to give them the tools to prevent injuries and protect their vision.
Buy quality sunglasses. As much as it can feel like a waste of money to buy good sunglasses your kids will probably break or lose within a few weeks, it’s actually very important. The cheap, toy-store sunglasses don’t offer real protection. Your kids (and you!) need sunglasses that filter out the dangerous UVA and UVB rays.
Buy sport goggles. Make your kids wear them for any activity that could involve getting hit in the face, like baseball or tennis.
Wearing eye protection during activities that can stir up debris is also a good idea. You and they should also consider wearing eye protection when gardening or even cleaning.
Teach kids to rinse, not rub their eyes. And you should remember the same. Carry eye-wash solution to rinse debris out of their eyes. Even a bottle of water will do.
And for the 4th of July, keep kids a safe distance away from fireworks (and do the same for yourself).
Eye Injury Prevention at Work
Office workers may not be in too much danger for eye injuries at work, but many of us work with chemicals, power tools, and other things that can cause injuries.
A lot of different things can cause eye injuries:
- Chemical splashes
- Large objects hitting your face
- Debris thrown into the air and getting in your eyes
Hopefully your employer has safety procedures in place to prevent these injuries. But it’s up to you to follow them. Rules can’t work if you don’t follow them.
Even if your employer doesn’t have rules (which might be illegal), you can still take steps to protect your eyes. After all, they’re your eyes, so you have the most to gain from protecting them (and the most to lose if you don’t).
- Wear eye protection when working with anything that could hit your face (whether liquid or solid, or even flying sparks).
- Make sure your eye protection is clean (so you can see) and in good condition (so it doesn’t break and cause damage instead of protecting you from damage).
- Keep dirty hands away from your eyes.
- Keep eye protection on until after you have brushed debris off your clothes and out of your hair.
Read more about Protecting Your Eyes at Work.
If You Do Get an Eye Injury
First, stay calm and don’t rub it. Just like when you get debris in your eye, rubbing any injury can make it worse. But don’t rinse it either. Depending on the injury, that could also make it worse.
Protect the eye by taping a disposable cup (or something similar) over the eye.
Then get medical attention right away.
If there’s bleeding involved, avoid taking aspirin, which can increase bleeding. And don’t put any medications on the eye until a doctor has seen it.
Learn more about treating kids’ eye injuries here. These tips are good for you, too.
Scroll down for some ideas on taking part in this important awareness week.
How to Observe National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness Week
Learn more about protecting your and your kids’ eyes. Consider:
- Kids’ Eye Injuries from Air, BB and Paintball Guns on the Rise
- High-Powered Handheld Blue Laser Toys Can Cause Serious Eye Injuries
- Eye Health in Sports and Recreation
- Practicing Fireworks Eye Safety
- Protective Eyewear: Learn about the different kinds of protection available and when to wear what.
- Don’t Buy Contact Lenses from Any Store or Website if It Doesn’t Require a Prescription: Great advice on why you should only wear lenses from reputable suppliers.
Do you have any tips for protecting your eyes from injury?
[…] National Prevention of Eye Injuries Awareness Week (June 29 – July 5, 2020): Eye safety is important all year long. But certain activities around the 4th, like setting off fireworks, are especially dangerous. So during the week of the 4th we remind ourselves how to keep our eyes protected from not only fireworks but sun, chemicals, dust, and more. […]