If you know what it’s like to be in a high school science class, you know what it’s like to wear lab goggles: claustrophobic and quite uncomfortable. Lab goggles just seem like a burden when you’re trying to start an important lab, or experiment, and oftentimes, teachers need to remind students to put them on. 

As any sneaky high school student knows, taking off your lab goggles when the teacher turns their back is an operation many have perfected. But what students don’t realize, or most likely think implausible, is the fact that any chemical can splash into your eyes at any moment. Contrary to popular belief, it can happen to you, and you won’t ever expect it. 

Chemical burns are no joke, and to speak from experience, chemical burns to the eye is not much of a better case. To put it in perspective, imagine the pain of lemon juice squirting in your eye, and multiply it by one hundred. If you haven’t already been convinced, this short story might help persuade you: To put it in a nutshell, doing your own acrylic nails isn’t as safe a task as you would think. 

The acrylic liquid you use to paint the hardening powder onto your nails was splashed up into my eyes when painting my sister’s nails. Much of it splashed onto my cheek and into my left eye. The pain it inflicted was so powerful, I jumped up quickly feeling a fiery, excruciating, burning sensation on my face. After 15 minutes of flushing it with water, the pain didn’t cease. My family decided it was best to go to the ER, mind you, this was a big decision regarding the global pandemic currently at large. After arrival at the hospital, I learned I had chemical burn in  my left eye and was prescribed medication immediately. Fortunately, my vision was perfectly fine, and I had no further complications. Eye makeup was put on hold for a week and eye drops were required three times a day.

Although this story wasn’t set in a lab, chemicals aren’t something to play with or to  be used carelessly. So the next time you’re thinking about taking off those lab  goggles, remember that the goggle marks they leave are better than the burn damage they can prevent.

In addition to that, in the middle of a global Pandemic, a hospital is the last place you want to be. Unfortunately, people are still getting sick, but what many people forget about is that injuries aren’t put on hold.  Trying to avoid the emergency room is imperative during this panic, but don’t hesitate to go, or underestimate an illness because of it.