GUEST EDITORIAL American Optometric Association Eye Safety Project Team: Gregory W. Good, O.D., Ph.D., Jeffrey L. Weaver, O.D., Steven A. Hitzeman, O.D., Col. George L. Adams, III, O.D., and William L. Lapple, O.D. Eye safety—You can make the difference F or the first time in its short his- tory, the Healthy People Initia- tive 1 has included vision objec- tives to help reach its goal for creating a healthier American public. Some of the vision objectives are general in nature: 1. Increase proportion of persons who have a dilated eye examina- tion at appropriate intervals. 2. Increase the proportion of pre- school children ages 5 years and under who receive vision screening. Several are related to specific dis- ease entities: 1. Reduce impairment from dia- betic retinopathy. 2. Reduce impairment from glau- coma. It is easy for practicing optometrists to understand their roles in helping Americans meet these particular objec- tives. That is what we do every day in practice. There are 2 objectives that deal with eye safety, with the goal of reducing preventable eye injuries at work and home: 1. Reduce occupational eye injury. 2. Increase the use of appropriate personal protective eyewear in recreational activities and haz- ardous situations around the home. For these objectives, the practicing optometrist’s role is less obvious and certainly is complimented with a com- mitment by the entire office staff. The most recent estimates show that, on average, 2,000 occupational eye injuries requiring medical treat- ment occur every workday. 2 (This fig- ure was partially determined using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System [NEISS], which monitors injuries and illnesses treated in emergency rooms. Because the ma- jority of most injuries in the United States are treated in non-emergency room medical facilities, the original NEISS estimate was increased by ap- proximately 2.5 times to arrive at the 2,000 eye injuries per day figure. 3 ) Within industry, the majority of eye injuries occur to workers not wearing any eye protection. The Bureau of La- bor Statistics found that in 60% of occupational eye injuries, eye protec- tion was not worn. 4 Additionally, for cases in which an injury occurred in spite of wearing eye protection, most injuries occurred when the wrong type of protector was used or was improp- erly adjusted. When safety equipment is fit and used properly, it is estimated that more than 90% of eye injuries can be lessened in severity or prevented entirely. 5 The number of eye injuries each year associated with sporting activities is also staggering. Estimates from the NEISS program indicate that more than 40,000 eye injuries occur and are evaluated within emergency rooms each year from sporting activities. 6 Because these esti- mates are only from emergency rooms, it is logical to assume that the 40,000 num- ber underestimates the actual total by approximately 2.5 times as was de- scribed above. Therefore, a better yearly estimate for sports-related eye injuries may be 100,000. Similar eye injury numbers are found associated with lawn and garden products. Clearly, the num- ber of eye injuries each year is putting vision at risk for a large number of our patients. Is optometry doing enough? With eye injury numbers like these it is easy to see why it is so important for optometry to be involved in helping pre- vent eye injuries whether at home or at work. As the primary eye care profes- sion, optometry should be participating at all levels to help maximize eye safety. To help determine how optometry is currently participating in industrial eye safety, AOA’s Eye Safety Project Team sent a short survey dealing with issues surrounding safety glasses to nearly 1,000 companies in Ohio. A complete list of all “companies” regis- tered in Ohio was obtained from the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Every sixth company that had “manu- facturing” or “construction” in its offi- cial State of Ohio name was sent a 13-question survey. One hundred Gregory W. Good, O.D., Ph.D. 1529-1839/06/$ -see front matter © 2006 American Optometric Association. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.optm.2006.03.003