It’s a Self-Correcting Problem Until It Isn’t
By: Kevin Estela
We’ve all heard the range safety brief. “Eyes and Ears” called out as a reminder to wear your safety glasses and your choice of ear plugs or muffs. Sometimes the range safety officer will add that hearing protection is a “self-correcting problem” and if you accidentally forget to cover your ears when the firing commences, you’ll understand why. Afterall, there’s nothing like a high-powered rifle muzzle break to ring the bells in your head. What is true of hearing protection is not necessarily true of eye protection. Exposure to high decibels can lead to hearing loss over time but it only takes one bad exposure to a foreign body to lose your vision. Eye protection isn’t a question because the consequences are too high if it isn’t worn during certain activities. Eye injuries are not self-correcting and you should protect your eyes when possible during activities like those presented in this week’s blog.
Firing Line
Eye and ear protection is mandatory on the shooting range. Some would think ricochets would be the primary concern but there are others we should think about. Setting aside what could come back at you from an improperly made backstop, there are other aerials that don’t mix well with your eyes. Firearm solvents and lubricants left on the moving parts can be sent back into your face as well as gas if you are shooting suppressed. In large classes or those classes where you are working on firearm drills in close proximity to someone else, ejected brass could end up in your face. Even something as seemingly innocuous as a staple gun can send one into your face if you aren’t close enough to the backer you’re stapling your targets to.
Processing Wood
Seasoned wood is great for warming the body around the campfire or in the wood stove. Green wood is great for springing back at you. When working with a pile of freshly cut wood, branches under tension have a tendency of coming back at you. Eye protection can save you the experience of corneal abrasions caused by non-sterile foreign bodies. Axes and machetes will throw wood chips as they are used and chain saws will hurtle saw dust at incredible speed. We would be foolish to recommend only wearing sunglasses when full protective face masks are available but we will say anything is better than nothing. Ballistic-rated lenses will protect your eyes better than squinting your eyes.
Fishing
Perhaps the scariest scenario I can think of while fishing is an accidental hook to the eye. Eye protection makes sense because an aggressively set hook can send your entire rig back at you and the fisherman with the best cast still needs to worry about the novice unknowingly swinging a sharpened hook only inches away from their face. Eye protection on the water can save your vision and it also can keep you on the water longer. Keep in mind, fishing eye protection isn’t just for hooks, sinkers, and lures in the air but also the sun’s rays. Not only are you being pounded by UV rays from above but they are also getting reflected from the water below. While not as dramatic as a fishhook to the eye, prolonged exposure to sunlight leads to headaches, eye fatigue, and general exhaustion. Proper eye pro keeps you on the water longer.
Off-Road Driving
The windshield of a car provides protection from dust and debris, for the most part. Depending on what you are driving, you may not have a proper windshield. You also may have the windows of your vehicle down or the doors on your vehicle off. Off road driving including rock crawling, bogging, and overlanding exposes the driver to a wide assortment of aerials. Insects, rocks, mud, sand, water, the list goes on and on and when speed is introduced. The dust that is kicked up from following another ATV or UTV along a single track is terrible to breathe in and it also is unpleasant when it finds its way into your eyes. Much like the chainsaw, there are dedicated goggles that work to protect your eyes but short of those, I wouldn’t hesitate to wear sunglasses if the other option was going without them.
It has been said, some problems are self-correcting. Then again, some problems aren’t problems if they are prevented in the first place. Eye protection protects your vision from realistic threats that are both possible and probable. Not wearing eye protection is a choice but it is foolish when the stakes are high. It only takes one accident, one split second, to transform your health and well-being for the rest of your life. Don’t buy into the idea you can afford to make a single mistake. Some problems are self-correcting unless they aren’t.