The Significance of this Class of Injury THE vast and far‐reaching effect of an eye injury is seldom fully realized, either by the worker or by the management, a fact which, no doubt, explains much of the prevalent disregard of preventive measures. A worker who sustains an eye accident, and goes off duty, disappears for a varying period of time from the ken of his shop manager and workmates in much the same way as one who has sustained a simple laceration of the hand or arm, yet to the medical and compensation departments his case may present far greater problems.

A ccreditation, compliance, and professional organizations have promoted the use of systems measuring safety performance, evaluating improvement opportunities, and comparing trend data. (For a list of Internet resources for assessing safety programs, see Sidebar on page 188.) The implementation of risk control and safety surveys as a method to accomplish the assessment of organizational performance is common. However, the type of surveyor survey tool varies among industries and institutions. The American Society of Safety Engineers notes on its web site (see Sidebar on page 188) that to "measure, audit, and evaluate hazards and the effectiveness of hazard control functions" is one of the four primary functions of safety professional. The evaluation process often involves gathering data related to human performance during the work activity from inspections, employee comments, incident investigations, and other sources to assist in determining if hazardous situations have been controlled. Performance surveys can show the presence of a safe workplace (Hagan, 200 I; Hess-Kosa, 2(00). Their primary objective is to "discover hazards, conditions, and work practices" that may lead to incidents (Hess-Kosa, 2(00).