Eyesight is Essential: Carefully Choose Vision Protection
By Jeff Strahan, an American Welding Society Certified Welding Inspector and Certified Welding Educator and Instructor at Weber State University, Ogden, Utah. Reprinted with permission: The AWS Welding Journal The human eye is a marvel capable of giving good vision for a long time, if taken care of and protected. “I could weld that blindfolded!” If you have been around the welding industry as long as I have, which includes teaching welding theory and vocational welding classes for more than 30 years in Utah and the western United States, you have heard that said more than once. Truthfully, I admit to having made such a claim. We often take good vision for granted. To be a good welder, good vision is paramount to being able to make sound welds with all of the characteristics quality and inspection personnel require, as well as proper manufacturing efficiency dictates. How to improve welding by enhancing welders’ ability to see the work is detailed in the following sections. The Importance of Protecting Your Eyes Many people work every day with less-than-adequate vision correction or safety protection. Some are aware of this issue but compensate with various coping mechanisms like squinting, holding their heads back a little farther, or moving in closer than they should, which subjects them to hot gases as well as ultraviolet and infrared rays. In many inspection or teaching situations, I would learn the welder or student was unaware of his or her vision condition and welding equipment, but were still trying to make acceptable welds. I discovered many students in my classes, and welders working in construction or manufacturing environments, were trying to weld through scratched, dirty, broken, or otherwise nonworking safety glasses/welding lenses, or with vision that needed proper correction.- Heydarian, S., Mahjoob, M., Gholani, A., Veysi, S., and Mohammadi, M. 2017. Prevalence of color vision deficiency among arc welders. Journal of Optometry 10(2): 130–134. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2015.12.007.