Home Improvement and Eye Safety Advice from our Sandy Springs, GA Optometrist

Whether it’s painting the walls or mowing the lawn, home improvements are common weekend projects among homeowners. Unfortunately, there are more than 2.5 million eye injuries that occur each year and more than half of those injuries occur at home. The good news is that in the majority of situations, eye injuries can be prevented if you follow safety precautions and wear safety glasses. Most people don’t think about wearing eye protection glasses when they are working around their home. After all, you’ve done the same chores many times before without incident, but all it takes is a split-second for an accident to occur that can damage your vision for a lifetime. Eye 1st Vision Center in Sandy Springs recommends wearing proper eye protection for all home improvement tasks to avoid any preventable eye injuries.

Lawn and Garden Eye Injuries

Close to 40% of eye injuries that happen at home are while working in the lawn or garden. Debris from trimmers, edgers, and lawn mowers can unexpectedly get into your eye at a high rate of speed, which can cause significant damage, possibly even blindness. For eye safety when working outdoors:

• Wear prescription safety glasses or standard eye protection glasses when mowing the lawn (preferably safety glasses with side protection). Be sure to check your yard and remove all debris before you begin mowing and using a weed eater.
• Make sure to turn off power tools when unprotected bystanders (especially young children) approach your working area. If you have helpers, insist they also wear safety glasses when in your work area.
• Always wear eye protection glasses when using pesticides, fertilizers and other lawn chemicals.

When doing any type of home improvement work that involves using tools (power or manual) and screws, nails or tacks-always wear eye safety glasses.

Using Household Cleaners

If you wear prescription eyeglasses, it is important to talk with your eye doctor about prescription safety glasses that can be worn while doing everyday household chores. Whether you are using bleach for the laundry or chemicals to clean the bathroom, it is extremely important to protect your eyes from these chemicals. If you get household chemicals in your eye, it can cause serious injuries.

Even if you use safety glasses, you should still be prepared with a first aid kit that is specialized for eyes. In case you get a foreign object in your eye, it is best to avoid touching it, instead, flush your eye with water to try and remove the object. Even if you do get the object out, there may still be scratching or injury to the eye, so it is important to contact your eye doctor as soon as possible to arrange for an examination.

Contact Our Sandy Springs, GA Optometrist for More Eye Care Tips

For more information on how to protect your eyes at home and/or for safety eye glasses recommendations, contact Eye 1^st Vision Center. Call our Sandy Springs optometrist at %CLIENT_PHONE%.