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Know where the eyewash is

Know where the eyewash is

Eye safety 5 min 29 CFR 1926.50 · 29 CFR 1926.102

Concrete, Masonry, Painting

Why it matters

Wet cement, mortar, masonry cleaners, and some paints can burn an eye. Where a corrosive can hit the eyes, the site has to give you a way to flush them quickly. That is 1926.50. Eye and face protection for the work is 1926.102. Find the eyewash before you open the product.

The talk

Wet cement and mortar can burn an eye. So can a masonry cleaner, a paint stripper, or a coating the label warns you about. Where a corrosive can hit the eyes, the site provides a way to flush them quickly. That duty is in 1926.50. The eyewash might be a station on a stand or a bottle kept for that job. Either way, you find it before you start. If you have to ask where it is after something is already in your eye, you are hunting too late. Point to it in the huddle. Make sure the path to it is open and that it is ready to run.

Eye and face protection is worn for this work. That is 1926.102. Glasses, goggles, or a face shield, as the work calls for, go on before you mix, pour, grind, or spray. Protection cuts the chance that a splash gets in. It does not change what you do if a splash gets past it. If something gets in an eye, hold the eye open and flush. Keep flushing until medical help says to stop. Do not stop because the person says it feels a little better. Do not stop because the crew is waiting on the pour. A closed eye keeps the product against the eye. The eye stays open under the water.

Do not rub the eye. Rubbing grinds the product in. Do not put drops from a coworker's pocket in the eye. Those drops are not the treatment, and they can make a chemical injury worse. Do not tell the person to blink it out and get back to work. After you start flushing, send someone to call for medical help, and keep the water going. Tell that caller what got in the eye if you know: cement, cleaner, or paint. Stay with the person. If you do not know what else to do, keep flushing and let medical help decide. The work can wait. The eye cannot.

Key points

  1. Where a corrosive can hit the eyes, the site provides a way to flush them quickly.
  2. Know where the eyewash is before you start the work.
  3. Wear the eye and face protection the work calls for.
  4. If something gets in an eye, hold the eye open and flush.
  5. Keep flushing until medical help says to stop.
  6. Do not rub the eye.
  7. Do not put drops from a coworker's pocket in the eye.

Do this

  • Find the eyewash and check the path to it before you mix, pour, or spray.
  • Wear eye and face protection for cement, mortar, cleaners, and paints that can splash.
  • Hold the eye open and flush if something gets in.
  • Keep flushing until medical help says to stop.
  • Call for medical help while the flushing continues.

Do not do this

  • Do not start the job if you do not know where the eyewash is.
  • Do not rub an eye that has cement, cleaner, or paint in it.
  • Do not put a coworker's eye drops in the eye.
  • Do not stop flushing because the crew is waiting on the work.
  • Do not tell the person to blink it out and get back to work.

Talk about it

  1. Where is the eyewash for the work we are doing today, and is the path clear?
  2. What on this job can splash or dust a corrosive into an eye?
  3. If something gets in an eye, who flushes and who calls for medical help?

This is a short crew briefing. It does not replace a competent person, training, or the law.

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