On Feb 14, 1:56*am, micky wrote:
Becaue of lower back pain, I need an MRI. * I've done maybe 3 or 4
hours total of metal grinding in the last 30 years, and worn safety
glasses during most of it. * Also, because of the direction the grind
stone spns, metal round off and stone that comes off t he grindstone
heads down towards my feet, not up to my face. * The housing around
both of my grinders keeps other metal and stone dust from heading up
or towards me.

There are two chains of imaging clinics here and when I told one that
I had spent about 3 hours of the last 30 years grinding, they said,
"Don't worry about it. The restrictions** are for people who do it for
work, day in and day out."

That has to be one of the dumbest things. Sure the
amount of exposure is going to be a factor in how likely
you are to have gotten something from grinding into your
eye. But given the apparent potential for damage, which
I assume could be loss of vision, I don't see how they can
say the concern only applies for people who do it every
day.

One would think that the more relevant question would be
whether you had an eye injury from any work around metal.
You would think that it's impossible to have a metal shard
in your eye without realizing something went in and experiencing
significant discomfort that would send you
to the eye doctor. I've had things taken out of my eye
twice. Both were so tiny you could not see them, but boy
were they painful. So, I find it hard to believe you could
have something in there without ever knowing you had
an event. But then who knows.....

I did find this from a place that does MRI's and it sounds
consistent with what I would think:

http://www.iowaortho.com/mri.shtml

"In addition to the above items, patients who may have previous metal
in the eyes should be extremely cautious. Please let your doctor and
technician know if you have ever had any metal chips or fragments in
your eyes from welding, grinding, or any accidents of any sort. In
these cases, an x-ray of the eye, called an orbital x-ray, must be
taken prior to the MRI procedure. Even if the metal.fragment was taken
out, or came out on its own, or if the eye issue occurred a long time
ago, an x-ray is the only safe way to confirm that there are no
remaining fragments that might impact the procedure. This is
particularly important, because small fragments in the eye could
potentially damage the eyes if brought into the magnetic field."


Here is another one that directly answers your question,
at least from this MRI provider's point of view:

http://www.newmri.com/html/mr_safety.asp

Previous Metal in the Eyes - If you have EVER had any metal chips or
fragments in your eyes from welding, grinding, or any accidents of any
sort, an eye x-ray must be taken prior to the study. Even if the metal
fragment was taken out, or came out on its own, or if it occurred a
long time ago, an x-ray is the only way to confirm that there are no
fragments remaining. This is important because if there are any small
fragments in the eye, it could potentially damage the eyes. We will
arrange these orbital x-rays prior to your scan. If you have done
welding or grinding but never got metal in your eyes, you do not need
the eye x-ray. If there is ever any question about this, the x-rays
should be taken.






For unrelated reasons I had to call the second chain and the second
one said, "Any grinding presents a risk. *You need to have an orbital
X-ray, to check for metal in your eyes, *before we can do the MRI.
And you need a prescription from your doctor before we can give the
orbital xray. * We won't do the MRI otherwise."

It sounds like they are erring on the side of safety. I think
you also have to understand that all patients are not like
you or I. There are language barriers, memory issues, etc.
A metal fragment going into your eye would almost certainly
send you to the eye doctor. For someone else, who knows
for sure.....