Have you ever heard that saying, “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight”? I recently heard it while watching one of the Indiana Jones movies with my son. Although in the movie Harrison Ford was being literal, the saying is often used figuratively, and implies that you need to be prepared for the task set before you. If you are not, chances are you’re going to get hurt – or worse.

Thomas was on a roofing crew, and he learned that lesson all too well last August. Although I am not quite sure why, Thomas was charged with grinding a brick wall. As you can imagine performing such as task would almost certainly generate a considerable amount of dust and debris. To even consider performing such a task without some type of eye protection would almost certainly result in an eye injury. Thomas recognized that as well. So he made sure that he had his safety glasses on. Even though there were no overhead hazards, he even wore his hardhat. After all, the brim of his hard-hat would probably keep all that dust and debris out of his hair.

But after grinding the wall for 2 minutes, the Thomas was seen on his knees beside the wall rubbing his eyes and saying some words that cannot be repeated in this safety talk. When his foreman walked over to Thomas to see what was wrong, Thomas told him that he had something in his eye and it felt like someone had just thrown a handful of sand in his eye. Although the more he rubbed his eyes the worse it hurt, Thomas just wouldn’t stop rubbing them.

The foreman yelled for another employee to grab the eyewash solution out of the first aid kit, and flushed Thomas’ eye. However his eyes were blood red from Thomas rubbing them with the debris still in them, so the foreman had one of the employees take him to a local clinic to be checked-out. He was given some eye drops and was told to go home for the day. Fortunately Thomas’s eyes were better the following day.

DISCUSSION NOTES

Thomas was wearing safety glasses while performing a task that created a cloud of dust. Safety glasses are meant to protect your eyes from flying objects. Wearing safety glasses to protect your eyes from airborne dust is like bringing a knife to a gunfight. You can do it, but you are probably going to regret it.

Why is wearing safety glasses inadequate protection in a dusty environment?

What type of personal protective equipment should Thomas have worn?

What tasks do you perform where dust is generated?

Do you wear tight-fitting goggles in those situations?

Are protective goggles readily available for you to use?

How can you minimize the dust generated from grinding and other dust-generating tasks?