Hi, I wondered if anyone has experience of this situation? 

An employee was reported as being absent due to an injury and when I investigated I discovered he had an eye injury after getting a small fragment of metal in his eye. 

When I called the employee to take a statement, he advised that he finished work on the Friday, felt no issues at all, didn't suspect anything was wrong. He went home, got changed, went to bed, got up on the Saturday and only started noticing some irritation later that afternoon.

It got worse over the Sunday and eye drops didn't clear it so he visited the doctor and optician on Monday and was referred to the eye infirmary where they removed a tiny fragment of metal that may have come from the job he was working at on Friday.  He would have been exposed to this at work, but was wearing eye protection and did not notice any irritation until almost 24 hours later.

The optician thought it could have been on his clothes or in his hair and only lodged in the eye when changing later or sleeping.  So, is this an accident at work for reporting purposes?  I'm not too clear on this.

Thanks.

Unless you can identify the specfic fragment as originating at your place of work then the answer would be no - anything else would be conjecture. Metallic debris can occur anywhere (for example opening a can of food, shredding documents with staples left in, various DIY and maintenance tasks, changing a plug) and is readily transferred from surfaces by hands or clothing.

Thanks for the responses!  I just mean reporting with the company accident recording system, it's not a RIDDOR reportable accident.

Yeah, not being sure where the fragment originated made me think it wasn't an accident at work either, but as always other informed opinions are priceless.

I agree with Kate. Also if this happened in an industry with a higher risk of metal particles entering the eye (cutting metal for example) then it may be better to go with the more reasonable assumption that it did happen at work.

Hi there,

Workers starting to feel pain and discomfort from an eye irritation after around 24 hours of carrying out cutting and grinding works is pretty typical.

I suppose it all depends on the follow-up investigation and method of removal of the Foreign Body (FB) as to how you would classify it as it is likely to be a MTC if the fragment could not be removed by irrigation only.

I have found that many cases of this type of injury are as a result of a lack of awareness of the effects of FB's and workers and supervisors not reacting quickly enough as soon as they suspect or feel the slightest doscomfort.

As a previous post highlighted, the FB may well have entered the eye while doffing PPE at the end of his/her shift, which does not take the onus away from the employer.

I have previously implemented training and awareness of donning/doffing PPE following grinding, welding & cutting activities as well as immediate actions when a worker thinks they may have had a FB enter his/her eye, which is to seek first aid immediately and get the eye irrigated to remove the FB which would then only be classified as a First Aid Treatment

Once a FB has been in the eye for over a few hours, a protective film is produced around the FB and it will subsequently be very difficult to remove without medical treatment and likely days away from work.

So, I would strongly suggest training and awareness sessions around preventing potential FB injuries by correct use and doffing of PPE and immediate actions if a worker suspects a FB injury has  occurred.

Edited by user 12 August 2020 12:57:48(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thanks very much for all the input, really useful.

I've investigated and logged it and the advice on the correct type of eye protection as well as the careful removal of PPE is really good, thank you.