What to do if your eyes hurt due to electric shock

When people are welding, the arc light generated by electric welding can cause a certain degree of damage to the human eyes, so welders will use a mask to cover their eyes when working to avoid being hurt by the arc light. When some people are performing welding operations and are accidentally stabbed in the eyes by the welding light, a white light will appear in front of their eyes, causing pain, tears, and even temporary blindness.

1. Symptoms

   The main symptoms include eye pain, tearing, redness and swelling of the eyelids, a strong foreign body sensation, and even eyelid edema and spasm.

   2. Treatment Methods

   1. When electric welding injures your eyes, wash them with water, close your eyes, and apply diluted medical alcohol to the upper and lower eye circles. There will be a burning sensation, and after a while, the pain in the eyes will disappear. Open your eyes when there is no burning sensation. Repeat several times and it will be healed. Be careful not to get it in your eyes.

   2. Spark burns: Go to the hospital immediately to control corneal inflammation and take some vitamin AD (cod liver oil); Light burns: Use two-month-old breast milk or milk to drip into the eyes or use cortisone eye drops and then chloramphenicol 5 minutes later (cannot be used for spark burns).

   3. Use welder's eye drops to drop into your eyes, the effect will be better.

   4. After applying eye drops, apply a cold towel on your eyes. If that doesn’t work, apply a towel dipped in ice water on your eyes.

   5. Burns from electric welding light may cause photoelectric conjunctivitis. You can apply cold compresses, use local anesthetics to relieve symptoms of eye pain, use antibiotic eye drops to prevent infection, and use corticosteroid eye drops if necessary. Protective glasses should be worn to avoid ultraviolet radiation.

   3. Notes

   1. Generally, welding light will heal within 24 hours. If it does not heal after 24 hours, please go to the hospital for examination in time.

   2. If you are injured by welding light, it is best not to play with your mobile phone, watch TV, or use a computer or other bright objects.

   4. Impact of electric welding on eyes

   1. Effects on corneal epithelium

   If protection is inadequate, it can cause photoelectric conjunctivitis, which occurs after being directly exposed to ultraviolet rays for several hours without wearing protective glasses, and usually occurs at night. In this case, you can use eye drops containing hormone. Generally, the condition will heal after 24-48 hours without any sequelae.

   2 Damage to the lens

   Long-term low-dose or one-time high-dose light radiation can cause radiation cataracts, which is the clouding of the lens, and is also an occupational disease for welders. The main thing is prevention, strengthening protection against light, and you can also use some eye drops, but the effect will not be too obvious. If cataracts affect work and life, surgery is the best choice.