Be Safe and Prevent Eye Injury
More than one million people suffer eye injuries each year in the United States. Appropriate protective eyewear could prevent ninety percent of these injuries.
Choose protective eyewear with "ANSI Z87.1" marked on the lens or frame. This means the glasses, goggles, or face shield meets the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z87.1 safety standard.
Follow these tips to protect your eyes:
In the house
When using household chemicals, read instructions and labels carefully, work in a well-ventilated area and make sure to point spray nozzles away from you. Many chemicals are extremely hazardous and can permanently destroy the surface of your eyes, resulting in blindness.
In the workshop
Think about the work you will be doing and wear 
protective eyewear to shield your eyes from flying fragments, fumes, dust particles, sparks and splashing chemicals. Many objects can fly into your eyes unexpectedly and cause injury.
In the garden
Put on protective eyewear before you use a lawnmower, power trimmer or edger and be sure to check for rocks and stones because they can become dangerous projectiles as they shoot from these machines.
In the workplace
Wear appropriate safety eyewear for your job. Many of the thousands injured each day didn't think they needed eye protection or were wearing eyewear inappropriate for the job.
Around the car
Battery acid, sparks and debris from damaged or improperly jump-started auto batteries can severely damage your eyes. Keep protective goggles in the trunk of your car to use for those emergencies and everyday repairs.
During sports and recreation
Wheatlyn Eyecare and James P. Tuttle & Associates are Sports Eye Injury Prevention Centers.
Protective Sports Eyewear are eyeglass frames or goggles specifically designed and manufactured to meet or exceed the appropriate US impact protection standards. All protective sports eyewear must also have polycarbonate lenses designed to withstand impact. Click to find the protective sports eyewear that is right for you your sport.
Boxing and full-contact martial arts pose an extremely high risk of serious and even blinding eye injuries. There is no satisfactory eye protection for boxing, although thumb-less gloves may reduce the number of boxing eye injuries.
Contact lenses offer NO PROTECTION, and contact lens wearers require additional protection when participating in sports.
- More than 600,000 eye injuries related to sports and recreation occur each year1. 42,000 of these injuries are of a severity that requires Emergency Room attention.
- More than 90% of all eye injuries can be prevented with the use of appropriate protective eyewear.
- Sports participants using "street wear" (corrective eyewear or sunwear that does not conform to ASTM standard F803) are at a far more severe risk of eye injury than participants using no eye protection at all.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Ophthalmology and American Optometric Association all strongly recommend protective eyewear for all participants in sports in which there is a risk of eye injury.
- The following sports are considered a high-to-moderate risk of eye injury: Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Lacrosse, Hockey, Tennis, Soccer, Volleyball, Water Polo, Football, Air Rifle, BB Gun, Paintball, Boxing, Martial Arts, Cricket, Squash, Racquetball, Fencing, Badminton, Fishing and Golf.
- One-in-eighteen college athletes will sustain an eye injury each season. The odds increase to one-in-ten for basketball players.
- One-in-eight victims of severe eye injury, and one-in-twenty victims of less-severe eye injury, initiate legal proceedings against parties assumed to be responsible.
- A market sampling in Michigan determined that:
- 97% of high schools do not have a Sports Vision Program
- 98% of high school coaches would be interested in a Sports Vision Program
- 99% of high schools have never been approached regarding the establishment of a Sports Vision Program
- According to the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, 84.6% of children do not utilize protective eyewear in situations that represent a risk of eye injury.
- Increasing the use of protective eyewear in sports is a goal of the National Institute of Health's "Healthy People 2010".
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