Occupational Hazards in Ophthalmology

An occupational hazard is a hazard experienced in the workplace. Occupational hazards can encompass many types of hazards, including chemical hazards, biological hazards (biohazards), psychosocial hazards, and physical hazards. Community Ophthalmology was described as a new discipline in medicine promoting eye health and blindness prevention through programs utilizing methodologies of public health, community medicine and ophthalmology. The aimof study- To evaluate the various occupational ocular hazards in health settings and their causes, affected age group, sign/symptoms and prevention. A total of 145 Patients who were recognized as a case of occupational ocular hazards, were included in this cross-sectional study. The age group of the patients to be studied was between 20 to 60 years. An assessment of present complaints, detailed clinical history (present and past) and occupation related history as like type of work, working environment, place, working hours. Ophthalmological check up as external examination of the eyes, visual acuity, torch light examination, slit lamp examination, Fluorescein eye staining, Schirmer's test, refraction, direct ophthalmoscopy, was done. In case injury, B-scan, CT-scan, was also done. In our study the male female ratio was 2.31 and most common affected age group was 32-40 years (37.93%). Labor and farmer (28.28%) were more prone to occupation ocular hazards. Almost 75% patients had primary ocular complaints of watering and redness of eye and most common sign was conjunctival congestion and sub-conjuctival hemorrhage (67.59%).