Unsafe and negligence working conditions result in the On-the-job injuries and accidents. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ( OSHA) have created two standards, that is, 1910.132 and 1910.133 in order to protect workers. These standards stress on providing eye protection and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the workplace. It is very hard for some employers to sort among various standards what they want their employees to use in order to keep them away from accidents and injuries in the workplace. ( Blair, 1996)

Despite dramatic changes in management styles, worker perceptions and organizational culture, OSHA strategies have remained essentially the same for nearly 30 years. Perhaps safety professionals need to begin thinking about OSHA in a different way.

The effectiveness of OSHA has been questioned by many within the safety field. For example, Petersen has called OSHA's efforts "misdirected" (1988) and Pierce (1996) calls the rulemaking process an "out dated regulatory system. . . . At best, it is terribly ineffective."

Obviously, many variables influence injury and fatality statistics, but the record across the U.S. has been mixed since the OSH Act took effect in 1971. The good news? The number of workplace fatalities per year has been cut by more than half. The bad news? Recordable injuries have remained essentially unchanged over the past 30 years, even though OSHA regulation and compliance have received substantial attention. Clearly, something is not working.

This viewpoint is not held only by those outside OSHA. At ASSE's 1999 Best Practices in Safety Management Symposium, Gregory Watchman, (1999) a former deputy assistant secretary of OSHA said:

“When Congress created the OSH Act in 1970, it focused the federal government's first broad-scale foray into worker safety and health primarily on the development and enforcement of protective standards. Congress anticipated that the standards-setting process it designed for OSHA would enable the newly created agency to target the most dangerous hazards, develop standards that would effectively reduce or eliminate those hazards, and issue them on a timely and frequent basis.”

The rules of OSHA's head protection standard are well settled, but citations still happen, and employers still wrestle with non-compliance.

The rules of occupational head protection are simple enough, and a check of OSHA's Web site shows they are well settled. The agency has issued only 14 Standard Interpretation Letters telling employers how to comply with 29 CFR 1910.135--none since April 1997. Yet between October 1998 and September 1999, OSHA issued 52 citations with $40,460 in penalties for violating it. The major industry classifications at the top of the penalty list that year were Transportation Equipment ($6,125); Primary Metal Industries ($5,200); Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services ($5.000); and Lumber and Wood Products, Except Furniture ($4,930). ( Bureau of Labor Statistics….1999)

These paragraphs are OSHA's head protection standard:

General Requirements

(a)(1). The employer shall ensure that each affected employee wears a protective helmet when working in areas where there is a potential for injury to the head from falling objects.

(a)(2). The employer shall ensure that a protective helmet designed to reduce electrical shock hazard is worn by each such affected employee when near exposed electrical conductors which could contact the head. ( Watchman, 1999)

(b)(1). Protective helmets purchased after July 5, 1994 shall comply with ANSI Z89.1-1986, "American National Standard for Personnel Protection-Protective Headwear for Industrial Workers-Requirements," which is incorporated by reference as specified in Sec. 1910.6, or shall be demonstrated to be equally effective.

(b)(2). Protective helmets purchased before July 5, 1994 shall comply with the ANSI standard "American National Standard Safety Requirements for Industrial Head Protection," ANSI Z89.1-1969, which is incorporated by reference as specified in Sec. 1910.6, or shall be demonstrated by the employer to be equally effective. ( Watchman, 1999)

OSHA Standard 1910.132 (Personal Protective Equipment) states that "Protective equipment...shall be provided, used, and maintained [by the employer] in a sanitary and reliable condition wherever it is necessary by reason of hazards...encountered in a manner capable of causing injury or impairment in the function of any part of the body through absorption, inhalation or physical contact." (Roll et al, N/A)

Responsibilities of Supervisor

It is the responsibility of the supervisor to ensure that if the employees purchase their protective equipment by them then the supervisor will have to check its quality and design that is adequate for the particular work to be performed and the supervisor will also check the cleaning and maintenance of the equipment. The supervisor is responsible to check all PPE that are used in the workplace. All the supervisors are responsible for the assessment of the hazards that are present at the workplace or the possibility of the occurrence of hazards that require the use of personal protective equipment. It is the responsibility of the supervisor to find out what particular type of personal protective equipment will be required by each affected employee in case if the supervisor assesses the possible occurrence of any hazard in the workplace. The supervisor will have to discuss the selection of a particular personal protective equipment with each affected employee and will make it sure that the selected personal protective equipment fits the affected employees. In this way, damaged or defected personal protective equipments will not be used in the workplace. (Geller, 1996)

It is the responsibility of the supervisor to keep the hazard assessment in the form of documents. The supervisor will have to write a certificate that will certify that the workplace has been evaluated, a witness will be there for the evaluation, dates of assessing the hazards at the workplace and the required training for all the employees will be mentioned. The training of all the employees will make it sure that all of them know about the use of personal protective equipment and when they should use it. The supervisor will also train the employees about the proper maintenance, care, limitations and disposal of the personal protective equipment. (Geller, Beyond safety.., 1998)

All the employees must demonstrate that they have completely understood the training about the use, maintenance, care and disposal of personal protective equipments. Once they ensure their supervisor about their understanding of the training, they are allowed to do their job. The supervisor has the authority to retain the employees who have not understood the training completely and who are not familiar with the use of personal protective equipments. (Geller, Building successful….1998)

All the supervisors are need for the verification that the training has given to all the employees and they have understood and received it. This is necessary just in the same way as the conduction of a workplace hazard analysis is necessary and the issuance of certification is necessary. The name of the employee undergone through training with date of training is included on the certificate. (Geller, Understanding Behavior-based….1998)

OSHA Standard 1910.133 (Eye and Face Protection) makes the supervisors responsible to make it sure that all the affected employees are using the personal protective equipment when they are exposed to the face or eye hazards. With the help of this standard, the supervisors become responsible to assure that all the employees have received eye wear that contains side protectors in cases where flying particles are existed and there is a chance for the employees to get involved in a hazard. It is the duty of the supervisor to make it sure that in the presence of injurious light radiation, all the employees must receive the correct filter lenses. (Watchman, 1999)

All the supervisors are responsible to make it sure that all the eye and face devices that were purchased after July 5, 1994 conform with ANSI Z87.1-1989 standard and the same devices purchased prior to July 5, 1994 conform with or be equivalent to the ANSI Z87.1-1968 standard. (Watchman, 1999)

Supervisors can be able to know about the present hazards that require the use of personal protective equipments in the workplace by the conduction of a walk-through survey. These hazards include light radiation, impact and liquid splash.

All the supervisors are responsible to make it sure that all the employees are provided with the side protectors along with their eye wears in order to protect the employees from the hazard of impact in which debris from flying particles or objects is involved. A wide selection of safety eye wears is available that helps the supervisor to select a particular type of safety eye wear for different types of impact hazards. These eye wears are complied with the OSHA standards. The variety includes spectacles with single and dual lens, face shields and goggles. (Howard, 1994)

It is the responsibility of the supervisor to select the right type of protective eye wear for a particular job. There are goggles or spectacles that are perfect for the protection of eyes from injuries due to dust, impact, heat, liquids, intense light and gases.

All the supervisors are responsible to make it sure that all the employees wear the protective eye wears of their right size. As all the employees are of different face sizes, the size of the eye wear varies from employee to employee. If employees use the protective eye wears that do not fit on them then there is a potential hazard for them to get injuries due to the entry of heat, particles or chemicals from any side of the eye wear. (Imai, 1986)

The supervisors should not consider the eye glasses that some employees wear with prescription lenses as the protective eye wear because such eye glasses are designed for ordinary use and they do not provide the required protection against hazards. the supervisors should ask the employees that are using prescriptive spectacles to use protective lenses and side shields in which correction of vision of employee and ANSI standards are met. The supervisors can also advise the employees to fit goggles over corrective eye glasses. In this way, the alignment of the glasses will not be disturbed. It is the responsibility of the supervisor to ask the employees that are wearing contact lenses to use protective eye wear in order to keep them away from potential eye injury. (Krause, 1996)

The supervisors are required for the communication and education of his subordinates about the use of safety eye wear because it needs more than a handout about the use of a particular eye wear. The supervisor must tell the employees about the importance of the use of protective eye wear and he must tell all the employees about the effective use of the protective eye wear. (Mc Sween, 1995)

The supervisor is responsible for the preparation and distribution of guidelines that tell about the policies of the use of the protective eye wear such as when the employees should use it and what particular type of the protective eye wear should be used by which employees. It is also the responsibility of the supervisors to give employees the necessary education about the hazards that can take place in the working environment. the employees should be told about the proper use and care of their protective eye wears in order to avoid any job hazards. (Petersen, 1988)

The supervisors have to make sure that damaged or defective eye wears are not used in the workplace as per OSHA policy. The purpose of the protective eye wear can be achieved only when the eye wear is in good condition. If all the employees maintain their protective eye wears then the eye wear will be kept for a longer period and it will save a great amount of the company that could have spent in the replacement of the defected or damaged eye wear.

Once the supervisor guides the employees about the proper use and storage of their safety eye wear, the good shape and condition of the safety eye wear is ensured. The supervisor issues holders, straps, free cases of the protective eye wear at the time of the issuance of the protective eye wear in order to protect the eye wear from the possible hazards of the workplace when the employees are not using them. (Pierce, 1996)

It is the duty of supervisors to educate their subordinates about the importance of the cleanliness of their protective eye wear. If the protective eye wear is dirty, the vision will not be clear and this will result in the mishaps. The supervisors are asked to make it sure that cleaning materials are readily available in the working area of all the employees so that they do not have to run from here to there in the search of cleaning material. The placement of cleaning material in the reachable areas in the workplace will save the time of employees and it will be easy from them to comply with the OSHA standards. (Watchman, 1999)

The supervisors are responsible for the inspection of eye wear regularly. Many accidents may occur due to the loose frames, cracked lenses, missing nose pieces of the protected eye wear. The supervisors are advised to immediately replace the protective eyes wear of the employees who are under going troubles to see what is happening or who spend a lot of their time in the adjustment of their broken protective eye wear.

OSHA has made it compulsory for the supervisors that they have completed hazard assessment in the workplace as well as they have given the complete training to the employees about the personal protective equipments. As these two necessary processes are made official by preparing documents about the completion of training and verification of hazard assessment, they are put into more effect. After the completion of the documentation about the hazard assessment and the completion of the employees’ training about the personal protective equipments and the potential hazards in the workplace, these documents should be displayed in such locations that are common to all the employees so those documents will be used as a reminder for all the employees and visitors about the potential hazards that can take place in the workplace and about the type of personal protective equipments that could be used for a particular type of hazard. This will help in reminding the supervisor that he has to do the assessments on the regular basis especially in the cases when some new equipment have been purchased and some new processes have been implemented in the workplace. (Blair, 1996)

When the supervisors are bound to verify in the form of documents that they have given the complete training to the employees about the potential hazards and the use of personal protective equipments, the employees come to know the importance of the use of the personal protective equipments more effectively and they feel bound to use them in hazardous conditions in the workplace. The employees would not be able to give any excuse of not using the personal protective equipments in the workplace as information about the use of personal protective equipments will be made official. (Watchman, 1999)