"It was just a careless impulse mistake," says Eric Malone, the Hollidaysburg-based, eight-time professional world jet ski champion who has done shows at Pittsburgh regattas.

He and a buddy had brand-new paintball guns, it was last New Year's Eve, and they felt like trying them out. They left the safety goggles in their shrink-wrapped cases, for they planned on exchanging no more than a few shots.

Next thing Mr. Malone knew he had a broken left cheekbone and a badly injured left eye, one which nowadays is pretty much limited to providing only peripheral vision. His central vision, even with a contact lens, is 20/200. In other words, he is legally blind in that eye.

"It's an embarrassing conversation, really," Mr. Malone said. "There are no loopholes. ... It was just stupidity."

But it could have been worse.

"I'm thrilled with Eric's results," said his eye surgeon, Dr. Andrew Eller, of the UPMC Eye Center, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh.

When Dr. Eller saw Mr. Malone on New Year's Day, he had a laundry list of eye injuries: his cornea was lacerated; he had lost his iris; the fibers that support the lens were broken, causing the lens to float in the eye; and his eye was full of blood. The retina, fortunately, was not detached, but it was badly bruised.

Dr. Eller's surgical team repaired the lacerated cornea with sutures thinner than human hair. Then, two weeks later there were further repairs: The surgeon took out the real lens, which had become a traumatic cataract, as well as the vitreous, which is the jelly inside of the eye, because it was full of blood.

"Many one-eyed people do very well," he said. "But we like to keep [the injured eye] as healthy as possible as a spare tire."

Mr. Malone, meanwhile, hopes people, especially youngsters, learn from what he calls his poor judgment and remember to wear eye guards when engaging in eye-threatening activity.

"They need to take a moment and think before taking a [bad] step forward," he said.

Mr. Malone told his story in connection with the recommendation yesterday by the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Ocular Trauma that every household in the United States have at least one pair of protective eye wear.

The reason, according to one of two new studies by the two groups: Nearly half of the 2.5 million eye injuries that Americans suffer each year happen in and around the home.

And they're not all caused by setting off the always dangerous Fourth of July fireworks. Those, in fact, comprise less than 1 percent of eye injuries.

Rather, according to Dr. Joel Schuman, director of the UPMC Eye Center, at-home injuries are more likely to be caused by such common activities as mowing the lawn, hammering metal on metal, or putting up pictures in houses. "Anything that can result in a projectile hitting the eye can be a serious injury," Dr. Schuman said, "and so the recommendation ... that every household should have protective eye wear approved by the American National Standards Institute."

Besides projectile injuries, other kinds of eye injuries are splash and thermal injuries.

"Chemicals are a big hazard, the splash injury, so that goes for things like cleaning fluids and battery acids," Dr. Schuman said. "Things alkaline are more dangerous than acid because they penetrate into tissue and destroy blood vessels and so the tissue can't get nourished and permanent injury results. Lye, for example, is very dangerous."

Cooking splashes like those of bacon grease "are more of a thermal injury," Dr. Schuman added. "That's bad, but not as bad as a chemical splash."

All three types of injuries are more easily prevented than treated, according to Dr. H. Dunbar Hoskins, Jr., executive vice president of the ophthalmology academy.

"Ninety percent of all eye injuries can be prevented by simply wearing protective eyewear," he said.

ANSI-approved eyewear is available at most hardware stores and is very affordable. Home Depot of East Liberty sells a number of plain and fancy models ranging in price from $4.97 to $24.99. Lowe's of Robinson reported prices ranging $2.97 to about $20.

Other findings of the surveys:

• Men were more likely to be injured (74 percent) than women.

• 78 percent of eye injuries occurred to individuals who were not wearing protective eye wear.

• Nearly half of all injuries were to individuals between the ages of 18 and 45.

• Around the home, the majority of eye injuries occurred in the yard (39.4 percent), garage (11.8 percent) and workshop (8.1 percent).

Sunglasses with a high percentage of UV light protection, also can help save your vision, according to Dr. Erik van Kuijk, an ophthalmologist and professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch. "Researchers believe there is a close tie between ultraviolet light and cataract formation and possible macular degeneration," he said in a news release.