Canadian workers are no strangers to work-related eye injuries. According to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), a voluntary, non-profit rehabilitation agency, “Every day, 200 Canadian workers sustain eye injuries on the job, often resulting in lost time and, in some cases, either temporary or permanent vision loss.”  That translates into more than 73,000 eye injuries every year.

The changing demographics in the workplace over the last 50 years saw women now working in high-performance industries traditionally dominated by men. The health and safety challenges that arose from this evolution are becoming evident and workplace stakeholders must take notice.

As the father of two young children, the idea that they could be injured seriously scares me. Through my extensive experience applying safety tactics in major industrial environments, I have learned the virtues of applying them at home.

In my experience, efforts to prevent injuries are typically targeted towards workplace exposures. However, if an individual is provided with safety information that is portable, they can translate their efforts to other areas of life; not just at work.

Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) requires employers to offer to re-employ workers following a workplace injury. This obligation lasts for a specified period of time and was put into place to protect workers from being terminated by their employers for any reason surrounding the injury or their claim for benefits.
 
This obligation is tied together with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s policies on early and safe return to work (ESRTW) and the employer’s duty to offer suitable and available work, where possible.