Dry eyes for house painters

House painters deal with sanding dust, paint and solvent fumes, overhead spray and long days outdoors in sun and wind, all of which can leave eyes dry or irritated. Safety glasses or goggles are the first line, along with ventilation and shade. Wash paint and dust off your hands before touching your eyes, and use a lubricating drop only as its label directs.

What a painting job does to your eyes

A typical exterior job has a painter scraping and sanding in the morning, rolling and brushing in the afternoon, and working from a ladder much of the time. Interiors swap the sun for closed rooms and stronger fumes. Each phase brings its own irritants:

• Sanding and scraping throw fine dust and old paint chips into the air, often right at face height.
• Primers, paints and solvents release fumes, especially in rooms without good airflow.
• Rolling a ceiling sends a fine mist of paint downward.
• Spraying puts paint droplets in the air around you.
• Exterior work means hours in direct sun and whatever wind is blowing across the ladder.

Wind and sun speed evaporation from the tear film. Dust and fumes are irritants. And concentration on a careful cut line around trim cuts blinking the same way a screen does.

Eye protection on the job

No eye drop protects your eyes from flying debris or spray. That’s what eye protection is for. Your employer or the product labels on the paints and solvents you use will usually say what’s needed, and those instructions come first. In general:

• Wear safety glasses with side shields while scraping, sanding or working overhead.
• Switch to sealed goggles for spraying or heavy sanding, where fine particles get around the edges of glasses.
• Keep a spare pair in the truck so a scratched or paint-spattered pair gets replaced instead of squinted through.
• Clean lenses with water and a clean cloth, not a dusty shirt.

Glasses also reduce how much wind reaches the eye, which helps with dryness on a breezy exterior job.

Fumes and ventilation indoors

Inside, airflow matters for your eyes as much as your lungs. Open windows, use box fans to pull air out of the room, and step out for fresh air on a schedule. Point fans away from your face; a fan blowing across your eyes dries them even as it clears the room. Follow the paint and solvent labels on ventilation and respiratory protection.

Ladders, wind and sun

Up a ladder, there’s nowhere to duck out of the wind, and the sun bounces off light siding and fresh white trim. A brimmed hat under or over your hood, tinted safety glasses rated for impact, and working the shady side of the house during the brightest hours all help. Don’t try to deal with an irritated eye at the top of a ladder. Climb down first, then take care of it on the ground.

Clean hands before you touch your eyes

Painters’ hands carry paint, caulk, solvent residue and dust. Rubbing your eyes with them is one of the fastest ways to make irritation worse. Before you touch your eyes or put in a drop:

• Wash your hands with soap and water. A hand wipe is a fallback, not a replacement.
• Make sure solvent residue is gone, not just the visible paint.
• Dry your hands on a clean towel, not the rag you’ve been using on the job.
• If something splashes into your eye, follow the first-aid directions on that product’s label and get medical help as it says.

Using a lubricating drop on a job site

For ordinary dryness and irritation at the end of a dusty day, a lubricating drop is an option. Quell’s Uses line reads: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. That protectant wording is about the eye’s surface; it isn’t protection against dust, chips or spray, which is why goggles come first. The directions read: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. The handling line matters around a job site: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.

Before you start, read the label’s caution: Caution should be used in those with egg or bird allergies — For use in the eyes only. Keep the bottle in a lunch cooler or a bag in the cab, not on a dashboard in the sun or in an unheated trailer through a cold night. The storage line reads: Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). The full label is on the Drug Facts page, and how to store eye drops covers storage away from home.

Something in your eye, or something more

A lubricating drop is not meant for a paint splash, a chemical exposure or a chip stuck in the eye. Those need the product label’s first-aid steps and medical attention. For ongoing symptoms, the label’s stop-use line reads: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours. Our list of eye symptoms that need a doctor covers signs that shouldn’t wait. If you wear contact lenses at work, the label doesn’t cover that; ask your eye doctor.

Quell ships to US addresses from Brentwood, Tennessee. Shipping is $10.00, and orders of 3 or more bottles ship free, which suits a crew keeping a bottle in each truck. Order from the home page.