A question was posed to me in an email from a client:

QUESTION
Is there an OSHA documentation training for wearing safety glasses?

ANSWER
OSHA does not have any formal training, certification or any other such “OSHA documentation” requirement for wearing safety glasses to the best of my knowledge.

The PPE standard in Construction for eye protection simply states in 1926.102(a)(1), “Employees shall be provided with eye and face protection equipment when machines or operations present potential eye or face injury from physical, chemical, or radiation agents.”

And,

the PPE standard in General Industry for eye protection similarly states in 1910.133(a)(1), “The employer shall ensure that each affected employee uses appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to eye or face hazards from flying particles, molten metal, liquid chemicals, acids or caustic liquids, chemical gases or vapors, or potentially injurious light radiation.”

That’s it.

The rest of these very short standards in General Industry and Construction give details and tables on the strength of the shading or of the strength of materials for eye protection.

TRAINING DOCUMENTATION
So whenever you train (including your 5-min. daily and weekly safety talks), it is always best if you document the training with employee names, signatures, a brief description of what was covered (could be with a bulleted list), instructor/trainer/supervisor name, and the date of the training.  That is proper documentation for training in most all cases.

If you have questions such as this, post them here in the comments and I will answer them if it is a quick response.  Or, I’ll commit to picking at least one a week to answer on my blog if it involves some research on my part.

Until next time,

-Steve

Spanish OSHA Guy!