[perl4ever]

"I didn't care"

That seems like the point. People learn what risks to take from experience; the employer has more experience than new/young employees, so you force them to care. I "didn't care" initially about breathing drywall dust, but later I changed my mind.

[gumby]

And when it's the employer who "doesn't care" the employee rarely has a choice.

[ggreer]

I guarantee that if you drove around and looked at people using weed-eaters that day, at least 1/3rd of them would have been wearing shorts. Heck, I bet the majority of them weren't wearing eye protection.

I'm an adult and I can accurately evaluate the risk of pebbles hitting my shins. Unlike dust or toxins, there's no lag between my actions and noticeable harm. Also, the maximum possible harm is limited. Nobody was ever crippled or killed by a weed-eater throwing pebbles at their legs. OSHA's action in this case was entirely unnecessary.

Stories from my coworkers were equally ridiculous. One time the company got fined because a worker was wearing earplugs instead of earmuffs. Both block sound just fine! If anything, the earplugs should work better because safety glasses can break the seal of earmuffs.

[jackvalentine]

Weed wackers throw a lot more than just pebbles and there can be a lag between your actions and noticeable harm.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3219886/

[ggreer]

Doesn't that prove my point? Weed wackers have been around for 50 years, used by hundreds of millions of people, and the worst you could find was a freak accident that was treated successfully. I was far more likely to suffer from heat stroke than from any weed wacker related injury.

[jackvalentine]

No it doesn't, it's also not the only thing that turned up when I googled 'weed wacker safety' just the most interesting. Obviously, it shows that there are more things hidden in grass than 'just pebbles' like you insisted.

Plenty of people get lacerations and other injuries from weedwackers but your employer has a duty of care to you to prevent the possibility of that happening. This has been codified by safety laws.

If you're using a weedwacker in your personal life feel free to do it nude for all I care but as others have pointed out if it's optional and unenforced that effectively means that employers won't do it.