People are not good and often make mistakes. We take shortcuts, forget find out how to do things, or turn into distracted at instances once we shouldn’t. In most points of our lives, these aren't things which have dire consequences. At work, nonetheless, surrounded by hazards, these types of errors can alter lives, even finish them. So, though human beings usually are not excellent, we have to make our safety programs as near excellent as we can.

PPE Focus: Face Shields
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an aspect of safety the place individuals tend to make many mistakes, and for quite a lot of reasons. Often, we think that the mere wearing of PPE makes us resistant to injury. With as a lot emphasis as we place on eye protection and head protection, will we lose sight (no pun supposed) of protecting our faces? Actually, eye protection is essential, since eye accidents can lead to everlasting blindness. Equally vital is head protection, preventing fatal head accidents one of the best that we can. Face injuries may not seem as significant a priority. They don't have the instant, everlasting, and doubtlessly fatal penalties of the others. With that said, though, an employer’s duty is to protect all components of their staff, together with their faces.

That responsibility contains figuring out tasks where face shields needs to be used, providing face shields for workers to use, training them to use face shields accurately, and to correct employees when face shields are used incorrectly or not used at all. The first components are easy. Our employees will make mistakes. Correcting those errors and implementing your company’s face shield requirements is an essential part of an effective PPE program. Unfortunately, too typically, this facet of the PPE program will not be enforced until after an employee is injured.

Situations to Use Face Shields
Consider the following situations where face shields should have been used, and the implications for the injured workers and their employers.

An employee was filling ammonia nurse tanks from a bulk plant. The worker was distracted while closing the valves, and mistakenly turned the unsuitable valve, inflicting a pressure release within the line. The discharge of anhydrous ammonia splashed on the employee’s face. The employee was hospitalized for chemical burns on and around the face.
An employee was putting in a water pipe at a multifamily residential building project. The worker initially was working an excavator, then climbed down from the excavator to chop a 10-inch water pipe with a minimize-off saw. The saw kicked back and struck the worker’s face. Co-workers called emergency companies, who transported the worker to the hospital. The worker was admitted to the hospital and treated for facial lacerations that prolonged from underneath the left eye to underneath the jaw.
Within the first situation, the worker suffered severe chemical burns. A face shield would have significantly reduced the chemical exposure, the extent of the chemical burns, and probably might have prevented any ammonia from splashing on the employee’s face. Sure, the employee turned the wrong valve, however does that imply that the employer is absolved of all responsibility for this incident? Of course not. The fact stays that the employer should provide staff filling ammonia nurse tanks with face shields, train employees to make use of the face shields correctly, and require them to make use of them when performing this task. Then they need to continually and persistently implement the face shield requirements. Doing so would have provided additional protection to the worker, even from the effects of the worker’s own actions.