Seeing and Hearing Better Workplace Outcomes: Why Vision and Audiometry Health Are Critical for Worksite Safety
Proper visual and auditory health are essential components of workplace safety, impacting not just individual workers but the entire workforce's well-being and efficiency.
- By Christopher Sintic, Jon Hansen
- Aug 23, 2024
On the jobsite, a healthy workforce is a safer, more efficient and more effective workforce. However, most preventative measures for workplace safety and health usually focus on reducing musculoskeletal injuries and improving long-term health. Few consider the impact that proper visual and audio acuity can have on the safety of not just the individual but the entire workforce. And the costs of ignoring these critical safety components are becoming increasingly dire.
For the most part, workers and supervisors understand the importance of visual health. Wearing glasses is common, and wearing safety goggles or glasses on most job sites is a standard practice. Though many people may still be hesitant to wear prescription eyeglasses or safety goggles, the cost of not protecting one’s eyes is generally clear to see. No one wants to risk their vision when there are countless dangers to the eye on the jobsite. Unfortunately, what’s not as clear are the impacts that poor vision can have on fellow coworkers and the dangers of poor hearing for individuals and those around them.
Unseen and Unheard Impacts of Poor Audio-Visual Health
On a jobsite, workers rely on each other to keep the entire team safe. Wearing protective equipment, properly preparing with stretching routines, and calling out safety hazards are all part of everyone’s responsibility to ensure the safety of themselves and those around them. Yet, without being able to see properly, workers are not only putting their own safety at risk, but it reduces their ability to protect others. Imagine a machine operator who is unable to judge depth and puts his colleague in harm’s way. It’s an issue that can often be easily solved by using proper eyewear.
When it comes to hearing protection, the risks are just as severe, but significantly fewer people are taking the proper measures to keep themselves and those around them safe. While protective and corrective eyeglasses are common in the workplace just as they are at home, there is still substantial stigma around wearing ear protection. Though manufactured earplugs have been around in some cases for more than 100 years, wearing them on the jobsite — or even at home when operating noisy machinery — has been seen as “uncool.” Sadly, the “uncool” perception surrounding ear protection has cost countless workers at least some portion of their hearing. Not only do hearing aids have a negative perception in the public eye, but those who have poor hearing often tend to isolate and see higher levels of depression as they age. Whether or not many people are aware of it, once hearing is lost, it cannot come back.