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in place,” wrote Prevent Blindness President & CEO Hugh R. Parry, Board Chair Richard L. Sanchez, and Government Affairs Com- mittee Chair Torrey DeKeyser. They cited the September 2016 report3 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Making Eye Health a Population Health Imperative: Vi- sion for Tomorrow,” which concluded that eye and vision health are “relatively absent from national health priority lists.”
The report recommended that CDC develop a comprehensive surveillance system for eye and vision health; coupled with a re- search agenda and coordinated research and demonstration grant programs that target eye conditions and diseases that contribute the greatest public health burden, the resulting evidence would al- low health care professionals and public health decision makers to better understand the scope of the public health burden, risk fac- tors, and at-risk populations and also to target effective policies, practices, and interventions, the report’s authors suggested. They reported that between 8.2 million and 15.9 million people in the United States have uncorrected vision impairments.
PPE Fit Included in OSHA’s Standards
Improvement Project
OSHA included a PPE item in the fourth rule4 it proposed, in Octo- ber 2016, under its Standards Improvement Project. That rule, in- tended like the other three to modernize OSHA’s standards, boost compliance, reduce compliance costs, and make them easier for
employers to understand, covered topics ranging from reporting job-related hearing loss and lockout/tagout to spirometry testing, lanyard/lifeline break strength, and Permissible Exposure Limits.
The PPE item said this: “Ensuring that personal protective equipment (PPE) properly fits each employee is essential to em- ployees’ protection. The proposed revision to require employers to select PPE that properly fits each employee clarifies the construc- tion PPE requirements and makes them consistent with general industry requirements.”
OSHA Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels said the revi- sions in the latest rule will improve safety and health protections for workers across all industries and would save employers an esti- mated $3.2 million per year.
Fred Elliott (Austin, TX) is a freelance author who writes frequently on workplace health and safety issues.
REFERENCES
1. https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/eyeandface/index.html 2. https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/home/
3. http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/reports/2016/making-eye-health-a- population-health-imperative-vision-for-tomorrow.aspx
4. https://www.osha.gov/sip-iv/summary.html
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