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Article: Contact lenses and chemicals: here's what current guidelines say about protection.(Managing Best Practices)
- Article from:
- Industrial Safety & Hygiene News
- Article date:
- September 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What calls should an EHS pro make on use of contacts? After all, advances in contact lenses--FDA approval for 30-day/night extended wear contacts, bifocals, etc.--are making contacts a growing choice among workers who require prescription eyewear.
Until the mid-1990s, most employers banned the use of contacts among workers in industrial environments. The bans were based mostly on now disproved claims: Exposure to arc flash could fuse contacts to the cornea, or chemicals could readily be concentrated within or underneath the contacts and cause injury or blindness.
Around the same time, studies began showing that contacts offered protection in some cases ...