Dry eyes for outdoor workers

People who work outside, in construction, farming, landscaping or on utility crews, deal with dust, wind and sun for whole shifts, and all three dry or irritate the eyes. Proper eye protection comes first. If you use lubricating drops, wash your hands before each use and keep the bottle somewhere that stays within the label’s storage range, which a truck cab often doesn’t.

What wears on the eyes at work

• Construction: concrete and drywall dust, saw cutting, demolition and wind across open lots.
• Farming: field dust at planting and harvest, chaff, hay, and hours in a tractor cab with the fan running.
• Landscaping: mowers, blowers and trimmers throwing grit and clippings at face height.
• Utility and line work: wind at height in a bucket truck, sun glare, and long shifts after storms.
• Road crews: hot asphalt, traffic wash from passing vehicles and dust from milling.

On top of the airborne material, most of these jobs involve looking intently at something, a level, a cut line, a row, a meter, which tends to cut down how often you blink. Fewer blinks means the tear film gets renewed less often while dust and wind keep working on it.

What OSHA says about eye protection

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration states that eye and face protection must be provided whenever necessary to protect against chemical, environmental, radiological or mechanical irritants and hazards, and that the requirements appear in specific OSHA standards for general industry, maritime and construction. In other words, safety glasses, goggles or face shields on the job are your employer’s responsibility to provide where the hazard calls for them. Ask your supervisor or safety lead what’s required for your tasks.

Eye protection is also the most effective thing you can do about dryness at work, because it blocks the wind and dust before they ever reach the tear film. Wraparound safety glasses with side coverage, or sealed goggles for very dusty work, do more than any drop.

Hand washing before drops

Work hands carry concrete, fertilizer, fuel, oil, plant sap and soil. None of that belongs anywhere near an eye. Before using drops on a shift:

• Wash with soap and water at a wash station, or use the cleanest water and soap you have on site.
• Dry your hands on a clean paper towel, not a rag from the truck.
• Take off safety glasses and step out of the wind and dust.
• Follow the label: Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye.
• Don’t let the tip touch anything. The label says: Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination.
• Put your eye protection back on before you return to work.

Hand sanitizer alone doesn’t remove grit, and alcohol on your fingertips can sting if it gets near your eye. Soap and water is the better choice when it’s available.

The truck cab problem

The label’s storage range is Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A pickup on a summer job site can bake well above that range by midmorning, and the dash is hotter still. In January the same cab sits far below it from the end of one shift to the start of the next. A lunch cooler without ice, an insulated pouch or your own jacket pocket keeps a bottle closer to room temperature. Taking it home at the end of the day beats leaving it in the truck. The guide on eye drops in a hot car goes into more detail.

If a bottle got very hot or very cold, check it before use. The normal appearance is described on the label: Product appears as a milky brown solution. The Do not use line reads: If this product changes color.

Where Quell fits on a work day

Quell’s Uses read: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. It’s designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. With three drops a day per eye in the directions, many workers plan one before the shift, one at lunch, and one at home, using the clean-hands routine for the midday drop. The full label is on the Drug Facts page.

Things a drop isn’t for

A lubricating drop isn’t an eyewash and isn’t meant to flush out chemicals or debris. If dust, a chip or a splash gets into an eye, use the site’s eyewash station or clean running water as your training directs and get medical help. Anything that strikes the eye needs a doctor. For ongoing dryness, the label’s line is clear: 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.

Ordering for a crew or keeping a spare

Quell ships to US addresses from Brentwood, Tennessee, at $10.00 per order, and orders of 3 bottles ship free. Each person should use their own bottle. If you want one at home and one in your lunch bag, keeping spare bottles covers how to rotate them.