Four Eyes are Good

What do blood, pus, fingers, sweat, vomit, dental plaque, urine, feces, dust, dirt, phlegm, saliva, snot, medications, dust bunnies, little parasitic bugs, amniotic fluid, meconium, dandruff, and those little seeds from dandelions that float on the breeze have in common?

They are all stuff that can be heading toward my eyes at high velocity on a “normal” day.  They are also all things that I do not want to get into my eyes.

Patients don't always cover their mouth. (CDC, Public domain image)

I always wear splatter glasses on calls.  They are pretty cheap, are easy to forget that you have them on, and are good protection.  Easily one of the most common workplace injuries in EMS is “Boss, I got potentially infectious filth in my eyes.”  And it is stupidly easy to prevent.

Splatter glasses block intentional spitting, unintentional bleeding, coughing and sneezing, ejecta from intubations, dust, and fingers. They are pretty important if you are a bike medic, as well.

We do a poor job of estimating risks in EMS.  Many, if not most, paramedics in my agency drop $300 on  body armor but not $50 on splatter glasses.  It makes no sense to me.  The most common injuries are the most easily prevented – funk in your eyes (wear splatter glasses), injuries from ambulance crashes (put on your seatbelt), and lifting injuries to the back (lose your false sense of “I got this” pride and ask for lifting help).  EMS has a tendency to focus on rare event safety – is the scene safe, do we enter into an active shooter scene, and those kinds of things.  We tell ourselves platitudes like, “I want to go home in the same condition that I arrived to work” and “Scene safety is our primary concern.”  But the simplest safety devices that can make a huge impact are generally ignored.

I understand that nobody wants to wear the flimsy disposable glasses that are usually provided by an EMS agency.  Me neither.  My choice is photochromic safety glasses.  Photochromic means that light forces a color change.  They are clear in dim light and smoked like sunglasses in bright light.  I don’t have to swap out sunglasses when I am outdoors for safety glasses in the back of the ambulance.

I wear these glasses.  They are a little on the expensive side, but I want them to last, have good lenses, and look good enough to actually wear.  Other good choices include these Spits (great name), and these.  I got mine at a local bicycle shop, but search “photochromic safety glasses” on Amazon to get a bunch of choices.

Splatter glasses: Just put ‘em on and leave ‘em on. 

Why wouldn’t you wear them?  Are there any good reasons to not wear splatter glasses?