Abstract:

It is essential to adhere to the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) principles to establish an effective OHS education and training system. Ensuring OHS through personal protective equipment (PPE) is currently an important area in various industries (health, food, agriculture) and education. PPE helps protect health and prevent damage in the workplace. In pre-service chemistry teachers´ training, the aim is to minimise the potential risks and injuries caused by contact with chemicals and improper handling of laboratory work. Students exposed to a threat to their health or safety must use suitable PPE while carrying out laboratory work. This paper aims to point out the insufficient attention levels dedicated to the importance of using PPE for eye and face protection. It is focused on decreasing accident and injury rate, risk assessment and prevention, increasing the ability to protect against risks, and progressive arrangements for good practice. We are focused on education in this area, supporting awareness that leads to the full improvement of welfare and works culture. The use of PPE for eye and face protection is, in many cases, undervalued. It is underestimated mainly by pre-service chemistry teachers, who are preparing for their future profession and employees who are working in laboratories. One way to expand these students´ knowledge and get new information about PPE is courses in Moodle on the website of Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (Slovakia). The online course ‘Laboratory Exercises in Analytical Chemistry’ included material related to, for example, PPE for eye and face protection. The e-learning course task, advanced with PPE material, aims to implement regulations into laboratory practice. The correct combination of the function of several structures or systems of the eye is a condition of good visual perception. Imaging can be adversely affected by a small change in the anatomical structure. Currently, we quite often encounter the fact that students use prescription glasses when working in the laboratory. It is wrong to think that prescription glasses can replace protective goggles as their functions are not identical. Prescription glasses can partially, in the event of a chemical reaction, or when a glass apparatus cracks, protect sight, but this is not always the case. Conditions that can be prevented by choosing the right PPE for eye and face protection, requiring immediate intervention and rapid treatment, include burning by acids and alkalis, burns, and more extensive bleeding from injuries. The role of safety goggles against physical impacts and liquids and mechanical influences is to prevent injuries to the eye and around it. Based on literary sources, the number of eye injuries in our country is three times higher than in Western European countries. When considering the location regarding where most injuries occur - after home injuries – the most injuries happen at school. Therefore, it is a priority to raise and educate our students to adhere to the principles of OHS and use PPE, especially eye and face protection. PPE is vital in education as well as in the work process to ensure safety and health. We can see their importance, especially now at the time of the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

education, expand knowledge, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Laboratory Exercises in Analytical Chemistry, a pre-service chemistry teacher.