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Toolbox Talks

Something in your eye: flush it, don't rub it

Something in your eye: flush it, don't rub it

Eye safety 5 min 29 CFR 1926.102 · 29 CFR 1926.50

Carpentry, Drywall, Welding

Why it matters

Sawdust, drywall grit, and metal slivers find their way past glasses that sit loose or have no side shields. The first thing everyone does is rub, and that is what turns a speck into a scratched eye or a sliver pushed in deeper. Knowing what to do in the first minute saves a lot of eyes.

The talk

A carpenter is cutting overhead with his glasses pushed up on his hat. Sawdust drops right into his eye. He rubs it hard with the back of his glove, and the glove is full of grit. By lunch his eye is red, and it feels like sand every time he blinks. He has a scratch on the clear front of the eye. Or a worker grinding steel feels something hit near his eye and ignores it. By the next morning there is a rust spot on his eye that a doctor has to drill out. Both started as a speck. Both got worse because of what happened next.

The rule starts before anything hits you. OSHA says you wear the right eye or face protection when flying particles, chemicals, or harmful light can reach your eyes, and it needs side protection when things are flying. Glasses on your hat don't count. Where your eyes or body could be splashed by corrosive chemicals, the site has to have a way to flush them right there in the work area. Our eyewash talk covers chemical splashes. This one covers the specks, dust, and slivers that make up most eye injuries on a job.

Here is what to do. Stop work and don't rub, not with your hand, your glove, or your sleeve. Blink a few times and let tears try to wash it out. Pull your upper eyelid out and down over the lower lid. If it's still there, flush with clean water or a sterile eye wash bottle from the kit, with the eye held open. Don't dig at it with a rag corner, tweezers, a knife tip, or a magnet. If something is stuck in the eye, if it was metal from grinding, or if it still hurts or looks red after flushing, cover the eye loosely without pressing and get to a clinic today. Then fix why it happened. Wear glasses with side shields, and goggles when dust floats.

Key points

  1. Wear eye protection with side shields when things are flying.
  2. Glasses on your hat don't protect you.
  3. Don't rub your eye, with a hand, glove, or sleeve.
  4. Blink and flush with clean water or sterile eye wash.
  5. Don't dig at the eye with tools or a rag.
  6. Metal from grinding needs a doctor, even if it feels better.
  7. Chemical splashes go to the eyewash right away.

Do this

  • Stop work as soon as something gets in your eye.
  • Blink and let tears try to wash it out.
  • Flush with clean water or a sterile eye wash bottle.
  • Cover the eye loosely and get to a clinic if something is stuck.
  • Wear goggles when dust is floating.

Do not do this

  • Do not rub your eye.
  • Do not use tweezers, a knife tip, or a magnet on your eye.
  • Do not ignore a hit near your eye while grinding.
  • Do not push your glasses up on your hat while cutting.
  • Do not press on an eye with something stuck in it.

Talk about it

  1. Do we have sterile eye wash bottles in the kit, and are they in date?
  2. Which jobs today could throw dust or slivers past our glasses?

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

Training aid only. This talk is not legal advice. It does not replace your company's safety program, a competent person, the equipment maker's instructions, or the OSHA standard itself.

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