Eye Protection While Welding a Necessity

My brother in law is not my favorite person. He is, in fact, my least favorite person. So I find a lot of amusement in his mishaps. And he has a lot of mishaps.

The latest one? He is apparently trying to build his own racecar, and he thought the eye protection he used while welding it was optional.

(Last year he tried to build a racecar and it fell apart while he was driving it in a race on a small racetrack in Malta, NY. But that's another story).

Last night, while welding, he removed his eye protection, because he felt he could see better without it. This morning he woke up and couldn't open his eyes. They were swollen shut. He's in the emergency room right now.

I googled this and it seems the condition is temporary, not permanent, blindness. It's called "welder's flash", and it is caused by exposure to bright infared light. It goes away after a few days.

Who removes their eye protection while welding?

And the worst part is, I feel kind of bad for him. And I don't *want* to feel any sympathy for this guy at all, because he's a total jackass. But I can't help it.

And that pisses me off.