General duty? How 'bout specific duty: 1926.102(a)(1) Employees shall be provided with eye and face protection equipment when machines or operations present potential eye or face injury from physical, chemical, or radiation agents.
But don't be so quick to blame the safety dep't. To be generous, it could be that they're human and simply overlooked the issue (which is probably the case here, because cost certainly isn't an issue). Could be that they're poorly trained for the job, that they were working stiffs who got stuck with the job because the boss wanted to shed his responsibility. Could be that they are trained and did recognize the problem, but the actual decisions were made by the big boss, and the safety dep't is taking the heat. And it could be that they were getting so much push-back from employees that they gave up.
More to the point, to say that safety is "their job" is to deny personal responsibility. We are each responsible for our own safety. If that means politely describing the problem to someone who ought to have recognized it already, so be it. If that means raising a stink with the boss (or with OSHA), so be it. If that means taking the time to do things safely when the boss is pushing production, so be it. If that means finding another employer, so be it.