What is welding eye pain? How not to hurt solder eyes?

Sore eyes cause discomfort for the patient. At the same time, this condition also interferes and causes difficulties in performing daily activities.

Soldering eye pain is a common condition of people working in mechanical areas, or workplaces involving electric welding. Read on to learn more about the causes and prevention of the disease.

Overview of welding eye pain

Welding eye pain is a term used to describe an eye condition that is damaged after direct exposure to electric arc light, iron filings generated during electric welding. This situation occurs quite often in new and inexperienced welders, or due to some negligence in not wearing safety glasses, carelessness while working by longtime welders.

Eye pain after soldering

Most welding injuries heal on their own in about 1 to 2 days and do not leave scars. However, in severe cases, your eyes will be at risk of infection, redness, loss of vision or more seriously, permanent vision loss if not treated promptly. 

Common symptoms of sore eyes

About 95% of people with sore eyes have the following symptoms:

• Eye irritation occurs after about 48 to 72 hours. The pain can range from mild to very severe.
• Swollen eyes, especially eyelids.
• Tears appear a lot, accompanied by bloodshot in the eyes (due to clogged blood vessels).
• Eyes have reduced vision, and are more sensitive to some strong light such as flash, sunlight, etc. 
• Eyelid twitching and a feeling of tightness in the eye when opening or closing the eye.

Symptoms of cold sores will range from mild to severe. Therefore, you need to monitor your eyes for 72 hours after exposure to the electromagnetic light of the soldering iron. At the same time minimize the dangerous complications that may be caused by welding eye disease.

What are the causes of welding eye pain?

The eyes are a very sensitive area, so any impact, big or small, can cause damage to the eyes. In particular, when the eyes work in a hazardous environment such as mechanical, electrical welding, etc., eye pain is inevitable. Sore eyes are caused by two reasons:

Exposure to welding fumes and metal chips

During the welding process, some toxic substances such as welding fumes, metal dust, etc. and often accompanied by tears.

Eye pain caused by exposure to welding fumes and metal dust

Direct contact with welding sparks

The arc light produced by the welding spark contains large amounts of UV particles and other colorless radiation. This will cause corneal burns, causing severe eye pain. At the same time, it reduces the visual acuity of the eyes. 

In addition, ultraviolet rays in welding light also damage the light-sensitive nerve cells in the eye. Creates a premise for irritation when eyes are exposed to light. 

The effects generated during the welding process (sparks, welding fumes, welding dust, etc.) usually heal quickly and do not affect eye health. However, if you are exposed to them for a long time without protective gear, it will cause damage to the cornea, gradually causing vision loss, even blindness. 

Effective prevention of sore eyes

To avoid dangerous consequences for the eyes, the best way is to protect this part carefully, during the metal welding process. 

Equipped with full body protective equipment

The condition of the heat sparks generated during the welding process, not only affects the eyes, but they also affect the surrounding areas on the body such as hands, neck ... Therefore, with the goal of safety when When working, you should wear full protective gear, wear shoes and specialized gloves, to avoid unfortunate situations occurring during the welding process.

Equipped with insulation partitions

Using a partition to separate the welding area from other areas is one of the effective methods, helping to minimize eye pain caused by welding sparks. Not only that, the design of a separate partition for each welding cavity, helps to minimize the situation of "double impact" between the two welding chambers.

Do not rub the eye area vigorously

Avoid rubbing your eyes too hard

If you rub too hard on the eye area, it will accidentally ulcerate the burns caused by the welding spark. From there, creating favorable conditions for bacteria to multiply and develop, causing the appearance of eye diseases such as styes, pink eye , cataracts ...

Using scientific artificial tears

Artificial tears are one of the effective ways to clean the eyes, helping to prevent eye pain. Not only that, the drops also help remove dirt mites, providing moisture to the eyes. In addition, if inflammation occurs during treatment, you can take some antibiotics to reduce inflammation, as well as support a quick recovery.

Above is information about welding eye pain that you can refer to. Hopefully, you will have more experiences in protecting and preventing diseases for your eyes.