IT'S STILL UP TO YOU!

got a good job playing town and i like what i do and people i work with i come to work every day and do the best i can and then get home to the family maybe watch tv or go bowling with a buddy of mine steve barnes well on the day i'm telling you about in just one moment of kitty and i'll caught up with him [Music] we've got a good safety man at our plant and he's always after us about wearing eye protection he says and i guess he's right that everyone who works in a shop or even visits the shop must wear some form of eye protection every minute of the day and not just at certain times or only when your supervisor is looking the way i see it steve barnes found out that cheating on the isap rules is dangerous it can cost you your eyesight even your life so instead of going home at the usual time steve barnes is going to the hospital and you're going along with them maybe by seeing what steve has to go through you'll learn a lesson a priceless eye safety lesson for you and your family [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] of course the surgical floor of a hospital is close to the public but stick with me i'll get you in what you'll see is considered routine that is if you're an eye doctor or a surgeon but if you're like me well suppose we take a look taking a piece of metal out of an eye that has been punctured isn't easy here the eye is being probed to try and locate the metal fragment and a special magnet is applied to the eye so that with luck and as little surgery as possible they can pull the metal right out by the way steve hasn't been given any anesthetic at all up to now the surgeon uses the probe and magnet time and time again but the piece of metal is off to one side from where it punctured the eye if you watch closely you can actually see the eye bulging when the magnet is directly over the piece of metal no luck my friend steve is in trouble only surgery can save the eye now steve is given a local anaesthetic and the surgery gets underway first an incision is made with a surgical knife as the operation continues the incision has to be enlarged with surgical scissors keep in mind that steve will be conscious throughout the entire operation sutures commonly called stitches are pre-placed so that the incision can be closed immediately once the surgery is completed as you watch this operation and marvel at the skill and steady hands of the surgeon i hope you'll keep one thing in mind none of this would have been necessary if steve barnes had remembered to wear eye protection every moment on the job the surgeon again probes for the medal the search goes on skillfully patiently without let up until now watch the tip of that magnet there there it is they've got it in a way steve is lucky if you can call this lucky if steve had glass in his eye or wood or aluminum or any other non-magnetic material a magnet would have been useless quickly to guard against infection the eye is stitched steve's ordeal is almost over only the long wait remains the wait until the doctor tells him if his eyesight will be as good as before steve told me later that when he walked out of the hospital this whole world sure looked good to him the sky the town the people in the streets especially his wife and kid well nothing had ever looked so good before for the first time in his life he really understood how precious his eyesight was steve said to me later it was a little like being sentenced and then reprieved at the 11th hour there's a big lesson to be learned from steve's experience and it's this wear your eye protection on the job from the time you went to the shop till the time you punch out and don't tell your safety man or supervisor that there isn't a proper type of eye protection for you here are some of the different kinds of eye and face protection all made to rigid safety standards any of these can save your sight and means of making a living drill press operators no matter the size or type of their machine should wear safety glasses to protect against flying metal fragments and broken drill bits shops have many types of grinders they not only spin off tiny metal particles and sparks but when the wheel shatters the fragments can be lethal if you're grinding at the very least wear goggles and with large grinders you should use a face shield over your basic eye protection and be sure everyone working near you is also protected wood chips and sawdust can be just as painful and damaging as pieces of metal if they get in your eye to prevent eye injuries around power saws and other carpentry jobs be sure to wear the proper eye protection even a simple task like power stapling can be dangerous work saving tools make life easier but they also can cause loss of sight every industrial plant has hazards it doesn't matter what your job is or what kind of machine tools you work with blaze milling machines punch presses you need protection against accidents which can damage or destroy eyesight remember what happened to steve barnes his eyesight was injured when he stopped to talk with a co-worker if you're spraying it's smart to guard your lungs against toxic and potentially harmful sprays and also against the possibility that chemical spray will get into your eyes and that means wearing eye protection getting your eyes splashed with acids or other chemicals can cause you lots of pain and grief if you work near dip tanks or whether there is a danger from chemicals or hot liquids use proper protective gear including a face shield over your regular eye protection near furnaces and foundry operations the hazards to eyesight are especially serious be sure to wear not only goggles to guard against molten metal sparks and intense light but also a face shield and safety clothing and keep an eye on the men around you be sure they do the same welders and burners and those who work near them need specially tinted safety glasses to protect their eyes from dangerous radiation and impact and a facial helps guard your face from burns here are just a few of the many thousands of members of the weissel club of america every member of this exclusive club has saved his or her site by wearing eye protection at work the more than sixty five thousand wise owl members are living proof that safety eyewear will do the job if it is worn if your eyesight is endangered on the job will you become a wise owl club member or will you be one of those others one of the thousands who have been partially or completely blinded because they cheated on the i safety rules you can bet on one thing steve barnes will never again gamble with his eyesight no amount of compensation can pay for the suffering to worry about ever being able to see again as for steve's family they shared his anguish and felt the financial pinch during the many weeks he was away from work about 1 000 industrial employees suffer some degree of eye injury every working day many of them serious it can't always be the other guy who gets hurt if you keep tempting fate it can be your number that comes up next if steve could talk to each of you he'd say that the responsibility for keeping your eye protection on rests with you that if you try and beat the eye safety rules you're playing a dangerous game if you've been wearing eye protection only when you feel like it or only when your safety supervisor or foreman is looking over your shoulder you're full of nobody but yourself steve can tell you when it comes to eye safety it's still up to you [Music] [Applause] [Music]