Got reminded yesterday why it's a good idea to ALWAYS wear safety glasses in the shop

[aarongough]

I had almost this exact thing happen to me, but without glasses.

When I was at my first job we used a LOT of 409. The standard spray bottles didn't cut it, so we found some special spray tops that would screw onto the big jugs.

We had this ding-dong working there for a little while, and he was too lazy to find one of the proper sprayers, so he just jammed in one of the ones for the smaller bottles, and taped the hell out of it.

I came by later and grabbed the jug, thinking the tape was just there to keep it from leaking, and not realizing it wasn't attached to the jug. It stayed on just long enough for me to get it off the table, and the open (full) jug dropped straight to the floor and shot a massive geyser of 409 into both eyes, my nose, mouth, etc.

I got chemical burns in my eyes, nose, and throat. I was almost completely blind for the first day, and partially blind for almost a week. The first three hours, I was in so much pain I was curled into a fetal position, crying without tears because my sinuses and tear ducts were so damaged.



I wear my safety glasses now, always.

Ouch Ian, that does not sound pleasant.

Hopefully everything cleared up ok!

 

[aarongough]

Might I make the suggestion that a face shield is appropriate in these situations? Much more so than just safety glasses alone. They can be had for ~ $10. I would buy one before getting the eyewash station (though that would be right behind) ... ounce of prevention...

A face shield would be good, but one of the main themes in this thread is that this stuff happens when you don't expect any issues. So you'd have to wear the visor all the time to see the benefit of it... In some cases that might not be a bad idea, I think for most knifemakers safety glasses are likely a more appropriate solution.

If there's a high risk of chemical splash then a visor AND splash goggles are the right idea. Visors aren't foolproof unfortunately, I've had stuff get in behind them.

Personally I'd say the ultimate solution is actually a full-face respirator as it's sealed all the way round, there's no way anything can get in except through the filters. I wear mine pretty often.

 

[Matthew Lomas]

A face shield would be good, but one of the main themes in this thread is that this stuff happens when you don't expect any issues. So you'd have to wear the visor all the time to see the benefit of it... In some cases that might not be a bad idea, I think for most knifemakers safety glasses are likely a more appropriate solution.

If there's a high risk of chemical splash then a visor AND splash goggles are the right idea. Visors aren't foolproof unfortunately, I've had stuff get in behind them.

Personally I'd say the ultimate solution is actually a full-face respirator as it's sealed all the way round, there's no way anything can get in except through the filters. I wear mine pretty often.

I agree that a full face respirator is the best solution, but safety glasses alone are never an appropriate solution unless you are just observing others working. They should be worn at all times in the shop but always in conjunction with another, more appropriate layer of PPE when actually performing a task that involves risk to the face/eyes. Likewise a faceshield should never be worn by itself, but with added glasses or goggles. This is an area that industry has spent Billions with a B studying and implementing and all the information is in the public domain for free.