Describing "eye safety" can be compared to the way Will Rogers once described the weather. His comment was, "Everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it."

Everyone agrees that helping eyewear consumers protect their precious vision is a worthy goal. And, on a more practical note, a lot of eyewear providers are now discovering that helping their patients protect their eyes is also a profitable niche in their business.

For these reasons, looking after the safety needs of consumers is becoming an important part of overall vision care. American industry learned a long time ago that eye safety pays off with major savings from avoiding lost employee time, production slowdowns, and related medical expenses. As a result, industry willingly spends millions of dollars to avoid eye injuries. Eye safety, therefore, represents a growing market for the optical industry.

Adding to this trend has been the establishment by a number of wholesale laboratories of special sales divisions designed to attract safety business-from industry and from eyecare providers. For these labs, safety, once considered a necessary nuisance by many, has now become an important additional profit center. For example, Essilor Labs of America, the largest laboratory organization in the country, has established a major division solely to encourage and provide eye protection to industry. The safety efforts of its industrial division are attracting new and profitable business for many of their retail customers, as well.

Further proof of the timeliness of promoting eye safety was the recent creation of an industry council specifically dedicated to eye protection. The formation of the new Eye Protection Council makes this a good time to review the whole subject of protective eyewear and, more important, define what eye protection means-to the eyecare professions and to consumers.

It was a little more than a year ago when a group of concerned industry figures gathered in Washington, D.C. to evaluate whether the eye protection needs of American consumers were being properly addressed. The conclusion reached by the group was that advising consumers regarding eye safety was more ignored. The group ended up forming an industry council in June, aimed at specifically addressing eyewear safety concerns (See news, page 20). Several points about eye safety came out during meetings:

Inadequate statistics. Statistics on eye injuries are often published in professional journals. The most significant statistic is the often-quoted annual total of 2.4 million eye injuries in the United States. That figure comes from a collection of statistics on eye diseases and disorders that was published by Prevent Blindness America 20 years ago. There has been no comparable industry-wide study since then. The problem, as it turns out, is that the industry has no one central mechanism for collecting this data.

There are several examples that point up this problem. For one, tracking every eye injury needing medical attention would require the attending physician or emergency room technician to file a report each time he or she treats an eye injury. Already up to their necks in paper work, one more report is the last thing medical professionals need.

One of the new Council's goals is, therefore, to encourage and facilitate more accurate eye injury statistics-but it is going to be a tough goal to achieve.

The eye seems particularly vulnerable to injuries. In the Oklahoma City bombing, for example, eight percent of the survivors had an ocular injury, yet the eye accounts for only 1/10th of 1 percent of the body's frontal surface.

Misconceptions. What is the leading cause of blindness worldwide? If you answered eye injuries, you'd be wrong. They are the leading cause of visual disability and monocular blindness, but not blindness. Trauma is sixth on the list of leading causes of blindness.

How would you answer this question: What percentage of workplace eye injuries happen to workers not wearing protective eyewear? In spite of a standard regulatory mechanism to protect workers, 60 percent of on-the-job eye injuries happen to workers not wearing eye protection.

It's easy to get bogged down in statistics when discussing eye safety, and the Eye Protection Council believes that available published statistics on eye injuries far underestimate the true incidence of eye injuries. Given that alarming fact, let's go on to the issue of how eyecare professionals should address the subject of eye safety with their patients.

The Eyecare Provider's Role

Patients come in for an eye exam and a pair of glasses or contacts, but they also expect a professional opinion on the health of their eyes and answers to their visual needs. It's easy to assume that answering those needs fulfills our responsibilities. But there's an additional responsibility that should be included in patient care-professional advice and counsel.

That advice should also cover eye safety, and you should, therefore, ask yourself: Does this patient's lifestyle require any special considerations in regard to eye protection?

Providing this advice demands a comprehensive knowledge of the patient's daily routine, and the best way to gain that information is to have patients answer a series of questions about their work and how they spend their leisure hours. This patient form is as important as the medical questionnaire because if the doctor or dispenser isn't aware that the patient plays racquetball, how can he or she provide advice on the best ways to protect the patient's eyes in a sport offering significant possibility of harm to the eyes?

Offering professional advice on eye protection will not be viewed as commercial. People readily understand the difference between professional advice and a sales pitch. However, there's no question that eye safety can be economically rewarding as well as professionally satisfying. Let's examine some of the areas that should be explored with each patient.

Eye Protection for Sports

Competency in this area of vision care requires awareness of any sports activities in which the patient is involved. Here's another reason for using a lifestyle questionnaire. Also, it's important to understand that enthusiasm for sports often carries patients into more than one sport...and the need for more than one solution. In regard to eyecare, participation in sports generally has two elements.

Most sports are visually demanding, requiring sharp vision for maximum performance. Many sports also require protecting eyes from impact or flying objects. For outdoor sports, protection from the sun adds another ingredient. To properly enhance a patient's sports performance and also protect their eyes may require several pairs of sports eyewear. If that's what is required, that's what should be recommended.

Don't forget that sports enthusiasts spend vast sums to gain a slight edge in their chosen sport. The right kind of eyewear can influence their score as much as the purchase of a $500 titanium tennis racket, for example. Informing them about the need for proper eyewear for sports is your responsibility.

And, specializing in sports vision can be a very rewarding part of vision care.

Eye Protection at Home

Here is another subject that is seldom discussed during an eye examination. Statistics indicate that 45 percent of all disabling eye injuries happen in or around the home-whereas only 19 percent occur at work. Why? Because many tasks around the home can be as risky to the eyes as working in an industrial plant. It's not unusual to find a patient with a relatively non-hazardous occupation during the week, who spends weekends working with a table saw, drill press, welding equipment, or participating in other risk-potential hobbies.

Even a benign task like mowing the lawn can result in a stone or twig being flung into an eye. It's difficult to explore all such yard and household tasks to which a patient can be exposed. There is, however, a relatively simple strategy that will ensure nothing is left to chance (see sidebar, page 78).

Eye Protection in Industry

Taking care of the industrial side of eye safety can be rewarding for any practice, particularly newly established offices. Some practitioners choose to set up their own safety program to take out and offer to industrial employers. Other refractionists are primarily interested in simply providing professional services on contracts established by laboratories. If that's where your interest lies, check with a few laboratories to determine if they have an industrial eyewear program. Labs can often help you become a panel doctor for safety contracts in your area. The most interesting benefit of the industrial safety eyeglass business is that it brings new patients-and new families-to the practice. Many will want dress eyewear as well, and that spill-over business is often the most profitable side of the safety business. EB