East Texas optometrist emphasizes importance of eye safety in workplace

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - October 12 is World Sight Day. This day every year spreads awareness about preventable blindness and helps those who were visually impaired in accidents. The U.S. Bureau Of Labor Statistics says about 20,000 eye injuries occur in the work place every year, making it the most common workplace injury.

Dr Neshia Rudd, an optometrist at Today’s Vision in Tyler, says she sees them quite often.

“Some weeks it can be every day and other weeks it could be a few times during the week. The most common injury ,I would say, would be getting a foreign body in their eye,” Rudd said.

Dr. Rudd says having a foreign object in your eye can cause infection, cornea scratches or cuts; or the object could penetrate the eye itself. This could cause blindness.

“A lot of times patients will wait and say, ‘oh, maybe it will get better’ and what will happen is it will actually rust, and the eye gets pretty inflamed after that. So, I always encourage patients, if you do get something in your eye, come in quickly so that we can get it out,“ Rudd said.

Blake Silvia, the owner of Lew’s Welding Service in Tyler, says they wear safety glasses or face shields at all times in the shop and welding hoods while working.

“Burning your retinas is a super common injury that you get from welding, and it will take your vision. So, looking at that bright light, it will do serious damage and can do it really quickly,” Silvia said.

Dr. Rudd says jobs that require a lot of time outdoors and in the sun and in front of a computer screen can also cause issues from blue light.

“The blue light makes us more prone to get macular degeneration, so wearing sunglasses helps protect your eyes from that. I always encourage my patients to adjust the settings on their screens to reduce the blue light,” Rudd said.

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