Good Morning

Just a general opinion or advice needed pelase, we have a number of workshops where we teach students in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering,  all staff and students are advised to wear eye protection when undertaking practical activities such as using machine tools including grinding machines and pillar drills or clearing swalf  but currently we dont advise wearing them for activities such as using handtools ie cutting metal trunking with a hand saw or cutting or stripping electric cables.  In business electricians dont usually wear eye protection so we are debating if we should be advising students to wear them. We have reviewed the accidents stats and never had any eye injuries and the risk is fairly minimal.. just want a sense of opinion.

Personally, I make workshops eye protection areas. Nobody allowed in without wearing them. You never know when you are likely to be struck by swarf or other debris from somebody else using a machine. Eye protection is cheap, not particluarly uncomfortable and light. I treat it the same way (in the workshop) as I treat toe protection in the rest of my factory. Don't wear it? Then we don't have a job for you to do.

Whilst PPE should always be the last resort, it still has a place when all other controls are not sufficient. Beyond putting all machine cutting parts behind barriers (which is not usually reasonably practicable in a workshop) there is not a more suitable way I can think of for reducing the likelihood of somebody getting a foreign body in their eye.