Few people realize that around half of all eye injuries occur at home. While it’s important to protect your eyes during the day, not everyone realizes the risks they take with simple tasks like cleaning, DIY projects, or going outside to the garden.
October is Home Eye Safety Month. Find out the different risks your parents face each day and how to lower the risk of an eye injury.
Four Activities Are Most Likely to Cause Eye Injuries at Home
Think about the eye injuries you’d expect as you get older. If you’re like most people, you think of car accidents, worksite injuries, accidents while playing with a pet or child, or sports activities causing them. While that’s true, an equal amount of injuries occur during things you do almost every day. Eye injuries are most likely to occur during these four tasks:
- Cleaning the house
- Cooking a meal
- Doing the yard work
- Improving something in the home
Cleaning the house, especially if your mom uses strong chemicals like bleach, can damage the eyes. She has to be very careful while pouring bleach or spraying harsh cleaners that none of the spray gets into her eyes. Wearing safety glasses while cleaning is the best way to protect them.
Cooking a meal, especially when it’s a fried or sauteed meal, is equally damaging. Grease splatters that hit the eyes can cause burns. If your parents fry any foods, your mom and dad should use a grease splatter shield to keep splatters to a minimum.
When doing yard work, your parents need to wear UV-protective safety glasses. If your dad’s mowing and the lawnmower throws a small stone or piece of mulch, it could do incredible damage to an eye. String weed trimmers, chainsaws, and other power equipment are other high-risk tools that can lead to eye damage outside.
Indoor renovations and home improvements that involve metal, glass, or wood are also risky if you’re not wearing safety glasses. Cutting a piece of flooring can cause splinters that fly out. Changing a light bulb could cause severe issues if the bulb or glass cover slips out of the hand while looking up.
Eye Health Also Requires Protection From the Sun
There’s another time when eye damage is likely to occur. Do your parents go outside and skip bringing their sunglasses? If they realize they don’t have them, do they go back in or skip it? Exposure to the sun can damage the eyes and cause conditions like cataracts and macular degeneration.
Those leading eye conditions in the elderly can impact your parents’ ability to drive. If they shouldn’t be driving or cannot be alone during the night due to vision loss, 24-hour home care services ensure they’re not alone. Call a specialist to learn more about 24-hour home care prices.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering 24-Hour Home Care in Queens, NY please contact the caring staff at Prime Care, Inc. today. (212) 944-0244
Sources:
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/preventing-injuries