- Failing to wear the necessary safety equipment while on the job has been cited as the top workplace safety issue.
- Eye protection has been found to be the most challenging PPE category.
- Hearing protection non-compliance is the next highest category for non-compliance followed by gloves and head protection.
- Reasons for non-compliance of PPE or Protective Clothing was uncomfortable, too hot, not available near the work task, poorly fitting and unattractive.
REVEALING STATISTICS
- The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) in a survey said that workers in their organizations had at some point failed to wear the necessary safety equipment while on the job. Ninety-eight percent of respondents who attended the recent American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) conference in Baltimore answered “yes” when asked if they had observed workers not wearing safety equipment when they should have been.
- Nearly three out of five workers who experienced eye injuries were found not to be wearing eye protection at the time of the accident or were wearing the wrong kind of eye protection for the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- According to NIOSH, approximately 2,000 U.S. workers each day have a job-related eye injury that requires medical treatment and the Department of Labor estimates that thousands of workers are blinded each year from work-related eye injuries that could have been prevented.