Safety Eyewear Myth #1 – Prescription eyewear will work for my safety eyewear.
Your ordinary prescription eyeglasses, even if you add removable side shields, do not provide the level of protection necessary to protect against workplace hazards. To be considered safety compliant, prescription eyewear must meet OSHA standards for high impact protection. Prescription eyewear that meets this requirement is marked with the manufacturer’s trademark and “Z87-2” on the upper/outer corner of the lens. Wearing ordinary prescription street eyewear in the workplace could result in a severe eye injury or even permanent vision loss.
Safety Eyewear Myth #2 – Safety eyewear protects my eyes from all safety hazards.
While safety glasses do an excellent job protecting eyes from everyday impact hazards, they cannot protect from ALL safety hazards. For example, safety glasses cannot adequately protect where liquid splash is a potential risk; therefore, goggles should be worn instead. Keep in mind; safety glasses cannot protect you from EVERY impact either. A projectile with enough velocity or mass could penetrate your safety glasses and cause eye damage. Individuals may need to use a face shield where ultra high-speed or high-mass impacts could occur, such as when using an angle grinder or similar power tools. To determine the best personal protective equipment for your job’s situation, perform a thorough PPE Assessment as recommended by OSHA.
Fortunately, safety glasses stopped this shattered angle grinder disk, but a face shield should have been worn.
Safety Eyewear Myth #3 – Tinted lenses are necessary to provide protection from UV rays.
Lens tints exist for aiding visibility, not UV protection. In fact, shaded sunglasses without UV protection can do more harm than no sunglasses at all because they dilate the pupil and open it up for more exposure to harmful UV light. Fortunately, the vast majority of today’s safety glass lenses are made of some form of polycarbonate, which naturally blocks 99.9% of UV light. So, even safety glasses with clear polycarbonate lenses will provide excellent UV protection.
Safety glasses with clear lenses are capable of offering the same level of UV protection as tinted lenses.
Safety Eyewear Myth #4 – Wearing safety glasses causes vision problems and can damage eyesight.
According to Dr. Gary Heiting, OD of All About Vision, “there is no scientific evidence that suggests wearing safety glasses damages your eyesight.”
While safety glasses themselves do not damage vision, there are reasons they may be the source of problems such as headaches and eye fatigue. Don’t let these annoyances discourage you from wearing eye protection. If wearing safety glasses causes you discomfort there may be an easy solution for eliminating the problem. Read our article titled, “Why Do Safety Glasses Hurt My Eyes” and consider the many options available for remedying the situation.
Consider wearing safety glasses as part of your daily routine at home.
Safety Eyewear Myth #5 – Most eye injuries occur in the workplace, so I don’t need safety eyewear elsewhere.
According to EHS Today, up to 50% of eye injuries happen in the home. And 78% of those individuals were not wearing protective eyewear at the time of injury. Also, 37% of those surveyed said they never wear safety eyewear at home. Because just as many injuries occur at home as in the workplace, make sure you understand the importance of Preventing Eye Injuries at Home. Wearing protective eyewear during home activities will reduce your chances of an eye injury dramatically.
Do you have a question or comment about this article? Please leave a comment below.
Interesting stuff, I’ve actually worked in factory before now that had a lot of hazardous metal flying about- although granted most of this was contained within CNC machines. In any case the boss of the place actually told me my prescription glasses would be fine doubling a safety glasses, so that’s exactly what I did. Pretty scary to think of the consequences had anything happened!
Thanks for leaving a comment. Businesses that allow employees to wear normal prescription eyewear as safety glasses is a common mistake we see way too often. Hopefully, this article will help others avoid making the same error.
Thank for your promotion of eyewear in every activity Mr. Eldridge. I wear permanently your glasses because I am a shooter and reloader in Uruguay, South America. It is a remote site for you, but I wish to say thanks to you and internet. My name is Oscar Latorre and I am a customer of Safety Glasses USA.
Hi Oscar,
Thank you for the kind words and your business.
Cannot find Crews Engineer Z87 Glasses 147MM lenses with 1.5 bifocals. Have scratches in lenses of my current pair would like to buy more.
Thanks for your comment. Unfortunately, Crews no longer makes the Engineer style with a bifocal lens. We do offer a wide selection of bifocal safety glasses, but none of them are a direct replacement for the Engineer style.
I am implementing a safety glasses program in our automotive parts manufacturing facility. I have folks that say they won’t be able to perform their jobs as an inspector of those parts while wearing safety glasses. What would be your argument concerning a statement such as this? I know this is an excuse, and right now I explain to them that they really wouldn’t be able to perform their job if they lost their sight completely.
Hi Ted,
Thank you for your question.
This is not an uncommon problem. And yes, it is an excuse. There is no viable reason wearing safety glasses would prevent someone from performing a visual inspection or degrade their performance. Workers around the globe perform visual inspections while wearing safety glasses every day. With that being said, I wouldn’t force my inspection staff to wear budget safety glasses. I’d want to provide them with higher quality eyewear that is comfortable and provides better lens technologies.
You’ll want to seriously consider anti-fog lenses if they work in a humid environment as lens fogging will definitely prevent them from doing their job. Plus, you’ll want to offer multiple styles of eyewear, as one style won’t work for everyone.
Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or concerns.
What would you recommend when working with UV-C lights
UV-C is not often talked about in the safety glasses industry because the Earth’s atmosphere blocks most of those rays from the sun. But there are certainly applications where UV-C is used or emitted. Some eyewear makers, like Oakley, advertise that their lenses block 100% of UV-A/B/C. That’s always an option. This may be a good time to mention that the color of the lens is not indicative of the level of UV protection. A Clear lens is perfectly capable of blocking UV light. Polycarbonate for example, the material that most safety eyewear lenses are made of, inherently blocks 99.9% of UV light, regardless of lens color. There are other forms of eyewear that are made specifically to block UV light, but I’m not sure that’s necessary. Any eyewear that can be proven to block UV-C should work, providing that is your only hazard.
Eyes are for life, so protect them! Eye damage is permanent!
Most people take their eyes for granted and sometimes don’t realize the dangers of not protecting their eyes!
Absolutely right, SD.
Hi, I’m curious if I can use wrap-around lab goggles for use with chemicals as well as with diagnostic use with a UV-A/B light. I work in a conservation lab where I’d like to protect my eyes when pouring chemicals, but then I also need to use the UV light to determine if a specific item fluoresces a certain way. Do I need a separate pair of glasses when I get out the UV light? Will the lab goggles fulfill both purposes?
Sue,
Polycarbonate (PC), by nature, already blocks 99.9% of UV light, so as long as you’re using a PC lens, you’re good there. Virtually ALL of our safety eyewear use polycarbonate lenses. The main concern with chemical protection is making sure your splash protection is adequate. Usually you’ll want some kind of Indirect Vent goggle, but if you’re dealing with toxic fumes, you’ll want Unvented. But yes, you can easily have a goggle to satisfy both. Splash Goggles here.
I have been asked a question regarding the UV protection of clear polycarbonate safety glasses: do they protect the eyes from welder’s flash? Obviously our welders use masks and screens, but it is my understanding that the protection of even clear glasses is sufficient that a person who is exposed to a welder’s flash will not experience eye damage. Am I correct with this information?
Tom, in theory, even a clear polycarbonate lens should block enough UV to prevent Photokeratitis. By nature, polycarbonate lenses block 99.9% of UV light. That said, the arc can be extremely bright and intense, while also emitting dangerous IR light that Clear will not protect against. As such, Please don’t ever where ONLY clear lenses for welding use. I’m glad to learn that your welders use masks and screen, which I hope and assume to be the proper IR filters. But for primary eye protection under your proper filter masks, Clear polycarbonate would be acceptable.
Hi there I work in a factory and I use the companies safety glasses. I’ve worn them for about four months and they have shaded to a bluish tint. I told my HR about it and they’ve never seen that before. So last week I got a new pair to see if is me. Well they are changing color again. Why? Is there something wrong with me??
Thank you for your question, Melissa.
Your question has me very intrigued. Can you provide the brand and style name of your safety eyewear? Are you working around any chemicals or unique light sources? What process are you using to clean your eyewear?
Would these be ideal for cyclists?
Thank you for your question, Lisa.
Yes, safety eyewear can work for cyclists. Usually, cycling eyewear features a taller lens because your riding posture (think road bikes) forces you to lean forward and look through the top of the lens. Having a taller lens helps offset this angle of view and positions the center of the lens closer to your line of sight. So, with that said, you’d want to find a style of safety glasses with a taller lens profile. Some examples are the Uvex Genesis XC, Bolle Silium Plus, and Oakley EVZero.
Hello,
I have a question of how harmful is wearing a safety glasses during working on a computer.
It makes my eyes stressful watching computer we are basically a test center which has a policy to wear safety glasses all time in work. But also watching a computer they insist this to avoid this i need solid evidence. Which will be more helpful if given.
Thank you for your question, Serfo.
Wearing safety glasses while working on a computer will not harm your eyes. However, everyone has different levels of sensitivity when it comes to wearing glasses, which is why some people get headaches or experience eye strain when wearing safety eyewear or sunglasses. If you find that traditional safety glasses are uncomfortable for computer work then I would suggest scheduling an eye exam with your local eye doctor. Then, depending on the results of your eye exam, see if they can make you a safety-rated pair of optical correct plano safety glasses with side shields.
Hello,
If I’ve understood correctly, safety glasses have almost the same, or perhaps more, advantages versus regular sunglasses. I am wondering to know that can they be worn as an everyday use sunglasses, as you can find many fashionable models with reasonable prices on the market nowadays.
Thank you for your question, Nima.
Yes, you can use safety glasses every day as sunglasses. The main benefits are most safety glasses are very affordable, their polycarbonate lenses naturally block 99.9% of harmful UV light, and they provide impact protection.
I just started a machine operator job where the machine robotically welds parts. A shield comes down during operation plus I wear protective eyewear over my regular glasses. I now have what looks like pretty significant vertical scratches on the lenses of my glasses & just noticed there are almost identical marks in the same place on the protective eyewear. Any idea what could have caused this ?
Thank you for your question, Debra.
I used to work with robotic welders many years ago before I founded Safety Glasses USA. Welders shed a lot of abrasive material into the air and surrounding work area. My best guess is this small abrasive material is the source of your lens scratches. Over time, the process of putting on, wearing, and removing your safety eyewear, combined with the abrasive material, is scratching your lenses. Unfortunately, there isn’t much that can be done to prevent this because your work environment is full of abrasive dust and particles.
Here are a few lens cleaning tips you can use that may help extend the life of your safety eyewear and prescription glasses. Let me know if you have any questions.
I picked up a pair of safety glasses at a yard sale and it does indicate ansi Z87.1 on the product. There are no other markings on these glasses. They are tinted red but how do I know for sure if they provide protection from the sun? I live in the sunny tropics and want to use these for yard work but only if they protect my eyes.
Thanks
Jeff
Thank you for your question, Jeff. There is a high probability your safety glasses use polycarbonate lenses, and polycarbonate naturally blocks 99% of harmful UV radiation.