IMCA provides lessons learned from an eye accident, when a worker got debris in his eye whilst paint chipping.
The incident
The Marine Safety Forum reported that a worker got debris in his eye whilst paint chipping. A few hours after the job was completed, he reported a pain in his eye to the Master.
After examining his condition, it was indicated that he had a small piece of debris in his left eye. At the beginning, medical assistance was attempted onboard in order to flush the object out of the worker’s eye, however, the effort was not successful. The seafarer had to visit hospital to have the object removed from his eye.
He then returned to the vessel with no further treatment required.
Probable cause
- The seafarer was wearing safety glasses that were relevant to the routine maintenance task, however the change of task to chipping would have required a change of safety eyewear to googles
- Though the circumstances of the job changed, the job was not stopped nor appropriate risk assessment reviewed;
- There was insufficient planning for the job and the risk assessment in use was generic without adequately addressing all hazards and controls.
Lessons learned
- All onboard Risk Assessments were reviewed to ensure that the correct eyewear is mentioned as per the company PPE requirements;
- There was a renewed focus on eye safety;
- Following review and discussion with the crew, better safety glasses – “Spoggles” – were sourced, which meet the requirement of safety glasses and safety googles.
