I agree the video is useful. The student seated at the bench not wearing eye protection because he is not handling any chemicals becomes a victim of someone else’s accident. If he was wearing glasses it may have prevented an injury. Safety glasses should be worn in the lab at all times is the message I take from the video. The female tech should be wearing splash goggles since she is dealing with a possible splash hazard. I would never recommend everyone in a lab wearing splash goggles because someone 30 feet away is pouring Acetone. I would also never recommend someone handling sulfuric acid to wear just safety glasses. Risk assessment has to play a role. Fogged goggles not worn or eye glasses that are, only by applying the most effective (used or not used) eye protection will we lessen accidents. We can’t have everyone working in level A suits just like we would not let people work without any PPE. I will use this video as a tool to demonstrate why we require everyone in the lab to wear safety glasses and labcoats.

Jeff

Jeff Tenney

Lab Manager

S.D. Myers, Inc.

"They're funny things, accidents. You never have them till you're having them."
~ Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh)

I totally agree with this sentiment and I think the video is useful for that reason.  If we all took a strict, absolute interpretation of the applicable regulations , then there would be very few lab denizens ever wearing safety glasses and rather they would all rather be wearing chemical splash goggles, but I don’t believe experience or risk assessment supports this direction.

Disclaimer: I am an employee of Pfizer. The statements or opinions expressed on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Pfizer.

Regards,

Dan

Dan Shiel, MBA, CSP, CHMM

Director, Risk & Quality Management Services

Pfizer La Jolla/ GO R&D West

10777 Science Center Drive

San Diego, CA 92121

“Act with integrity in the moment of choice...”
Unknown

I, too, liked the video, even though it showed safety glasses and not goggles. Personally, I think goggles are a safer choice. But, in my 29 years of working in the industrial research environment, I have never seen goggles routinely used. It is hard enough to get people to wear their safety glasses with side shields all the time, let alone goggles. Safety glasses are better than nothing.

So, like Wayne, I think this video helps move things in the right direction. If it encourages more people to wear safety glasses, someday maybe we can get them into goggles.

I plan to show this at my Lab Safety committee meeting next week. We will talk about how goggles are a better choice but this video still has a great message.

Please forgive me for disagreeing with the lab safety guru, but in our neck of the woods it is hard enough to get lab personnel to wear safety glasses, let alone wear goggles.  Here we require goggles when there is a significant splash hazard but for light-to-moderate work in your typical research lab we require safety glasses with side shields.   

Unlike Jim who feels the producers are “totally wrong”, IMHO this video can help us increase the use of eye protection.. Bravo and thank you UCSD!

W.