Safety glasses

[PeterFW]

I got too much exposure to the UV, causing eye problems for quite some time afterward.

The lovely feeling of gravel benath your eye lids you will never forget

Those people who say "PSA is for wimps" just have had luck the whole time.
One can go his whole life without anny accidents, that is pure luck, so they tend to think they are something better then the rest.

Well... ok, there are others too, those who work at a snails pace and leave the room and lets others do the "real dangerous stuff"...

[smjcuk]

Never worn safety glasses but I advise doing it. Also wear shoes. Having had to pull a full inch long wire wrapping post out of my foot with pliers when I was 15. To add insult to injury, it hurt for a month and I had to have a tetanus jab which hurt like hell too.

[helius]

Tetanus is a dirt-borne organism, so catching it from anything clean is very unlikely. It's SOP to vaccinate anyone who hasn't had a shot in the last 10 years though, because most people don't keep their immunizations current.

[Galenbo]

for decades I used nothing.  but I realized that I NEED MY EYES and its not worth any risk given how simple and cheap it is to use the eye protection.

I now evangelize for those.  when I see someone not using them, I tell them about it (like I was told; and I never knew about them before I was informed).

seriously.  get them.  why would you NOT protect your eyes?  !!

You are right. But most of us have to see/expierience an accident before realising that.
Chances something happens are incedibly small, but the effects are incedibly big, so easy math and statistics don't apply here.

I once heard someone say (who advised wearing them): Wear them now, they protect BOTH of your eyes.
Don't wear them AFTER loosing an eye, because the chance that it happens AGAIN to the same person is very much smaller, and as an extra,
divided by two because hitting the same side of your face isn't a problem anymore.

Didn't know what to do. Laugh or cry.

[KJDS]

I don't wear safety glasses when walking down the street even though a passing car could throw up a stone that could blind me, and I don't wear them whilst cooking chips despite the boiling oil. I just don't see the point in wrapping up in cotton wool without good reason.

I won't criticize anyone who does, and I will wear safety glasses when operating metalworking machinery, but for soldering?

[smjcuk]

Don't wear them AFTER loosing an eye, because the chance that it happens AGAIN to the same person is very much smaller, and as an extra, divided by two because hitting the same side of your face isn't a problem anymore.

Actually the probability of the same event happening again is the same as the first one happening: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_%28probability_theory%29

[max666]

Don't wear them AFTER loosing an eye, because the chance that it happens AGAIN to the same person is very much smaller, and as an extra, divided by two because hitting the same side of your face isn't a problem anymore.

Actually the probability of the same event happening again is the same as the first one happening: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_%28probability_theory%29

Reminds me of a joke:
Why does a mathematician take a bomb with him on an airplane?
Because the probability of two bombs being on a plain is much smaller.

(which of course is a fallacy  )

[smjcuk]

Ha. I like that one.

[mzzj]

  I can live and work without toenails, would rather not do so without an eye.

^
|
This 1000 times.

I wear prescription glasses pretty much 100% of the time and those have saved my eyes more than once.  "Real" safety glasses I am using only when absolutely required (ie some visits to factories) since  I get more or less headache every time when I change to my prescription safety glasses. 

[Galenbo]

Actually the probability of the same event happening again is the same as the first one happening:

Makes me think of the proof we once saw, that the propability of winning the lotto a second time is the same...
Didn't think of that. It's counterintuitive. I must make up some excuse here 

[Monkeh]

I don't wear safety glasses when walking down the street even though a passing car could throw up a stone that could blind me, and I don't wear them whilst cooking chips despite the boiling oil. I just don't see the point in wrapping up in cotton wool without good reason.

I won't criticize anyone who does, and I will wear safety glasses when operating metalworking machinery, but for soldering?

I've seen enough people get flux and blobs of solder in the eye over the years. If I didn't already have to wear glasses, I would while soldering.

Take the opportunity to wear something with magnification, makes the soldering easier anyway.

[Tomorokoshi]

Choose the right safety glasses for the job. Basic safety glasses are good for most things, but can be inadequate when working with chemicals. Full-face shields help with that.

Specialty filter lenses are available for applications like laser work, where for instance if one is working with a red laser, the lenses are green to filter it out.

Sign on the door of a lab with lasers in use: "Do not look into laser with remaining eye."

A bit macabre, but a worthy reminder.