Evaluating Safety Eyewear

You should consider the following when evaluating safety eyewear:

1. What hazards are you subject to? Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) identifies five primary threats (impact, heat, chemicals, dust, and optical radiation) to consider.
2. Are safety glasses or safety goggles the best choice? Is one more comfortable or appropriate to the hazards you might face?
3. Do you need clear or prescription safety glasses? If you need corrective lenses, should you use your own or use corrective safety eye protection? Are bifocal safety glasses the best choice for you?

OSHA approved safety glasses are available from a wide variety of companies to satisfy your every need. Some will be more comfortable than others just as every day eyewear becomes a very personal choice when purchasing new frames and lenses. The primary consideration should always relate to having the best protection against the potential workplace threats you face on a daily basis.

Your choices may appear daunting at times. For instance, Crews safety glasses, a major supplier of excellent OSHA safety glasses, offers over 12 different styles of safety glasses and goggles. Uvex Safety Glasses, another well respected protective eyewear firm, offers another wide variety of design choices.

Your choice of eyewear, whether clear safety glasses, bifocal safety glasses, or prescription safety glasses, becomes more complex if your eyesight needs correction. Make a careful evaluation of your choices. For example, if you wear contact lenses that you find very comfortable, clear or polarized safety glasses may be a better choice since your eyesight is already corrected. If you wear glasses regularly, you should consider prescription safety glasses so you can perform your job effectively.

Safety Glasses That Help Sight Issues

In addition to pure eye protection, you can select both bifocal safety glasses and prescription safety glasses. First you want American National Standards Institute (ANSI) safety glasses or American Optical safety glasses to protect you against the hazards that may occur at your workplace. Never trust the protection of your eyesight to cheap safety glasses. Also, use the correct items for your workplace. If you need laboratory safety glasses or lab safety goggles, don’t spend your money on welding safety glasses. Both types are excellent but they are designed to protect against different hazards.

After you know the type of safety eye-wear you need, you must decide whether you need bifocal safety glasses or even prescription safety glasses. In addition to being good industrial safety glasses, these units will help improve your eyesight while working. If your eyesight is not perfect, yet not horrendous, a good pair of bifocal safety glasses might be enough to complete both general work duties and also handle close up detail work without changing eye protection. Should you need eyesight correction but wear comfortable contact lenses that bring your sight close to perfect, a set of clear safety glasses or goggles might be sufficient.

However, if you wear eyeglasses in your everyday life, clear safety glasses are not enough. You might look a bit odd wearing two pairs of glasses at the same time. Therefore, consider a good pair of prescription safety glasses that are effective, stylish, and still provide excellent protection when you buy safety glasses. You can also purchase tinted lenses to reduce glare and low level solar radiation.

Safety Glasses Made for Women

Safety eyewear is not restricted to the male domain as there are now safety glasses for women available. As more females have entered the construction and medical industries as well as the sporting world, safety goggles and glasses have followed this growth. Have your doubts? Consider this recently published fact: 80% of the women questioned in a survey stated they were going to begin a home improvement project. 75% of these women stated they were going to do it themselves! Look around and notice the ever increasing number of women at major construction sites, highway improvement locations, and on many subcontractor projects.

Safety glasses for women are made with smaller, sometimes with more fashionable frames, fitting the smaller structure of most women’s faces. For female children from the early years through high school and college, women athletes can choose from a good selection of safety glasses or goggles. Whether she needs clear or prescription safety glasses, safety sunglasses, or lab safety glasses, women can now find quality eyewear made just for them.

Among the many companies offering safety glasses for women are Uvex, Elvex, Smith & Wesson, Crews, 3M, and Allsafe to name just a few. Females can also get laser protective eyewear and units with safety glasses side shields should their circumstances dictate these items. The first key is to protect yourself correctly. Then women can select safety eyewear that fits their faces properly and looks good, too!

OSHA’s Position on Safety Glasses

Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has addressed both the variety of threats and minimum standards for safety glasses. The five major dangers to your eyes per OSHA studies

• Impact – Flying objects and particles.
• Heat – Anything that gives off dangerous heat.
• Chemicals – Includes flashes, fumes, and vapors.
• Dust – Otherwise harmless particulates that can damage sensitive eyes.
• Optical radiation – Everything from simple glare to intense light.

It is critical that you select safety eyewear that protects you against the threats you face. OSHA has published standards for protective eyewear based on the type of hazard that might affect you. NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health) also has safety eyewear standards that should help you select the correct protection for your job site. The most important consideration is always to protect yourself against the specific threats you face in the workplace. Use OSHA recommendations and standards as a guideline for selecting the best solution that works for you.

Safety is always the most important evaluation factor but your job duties should still be accomplished with OSHA standards and your personal comfort in mind. OSHA has studied massive amounts of data and tested many examples of safety glasses. Use their information to help protect your eyes.

Hazards That Require Safety Glasses

When considering the potential hazards you may face at work, at home, or on the field of play, you must be both honest and thorough. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has identified five primary dangers to your eyes:

• Impact
• Heat
• Chemicals
• Dust
• Optical radiation

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) performed its own study on eye accidents and protection. They learned the following:

• Accidents and eye protection – 60% of accidents resulted from workers not wearing any protection – 40% resulted from wearing the wrong type of eye protection.
• Flying objects, particles, and sparks – around 70% of all eye accidents resulted from these – 60% of the objects were smaller than a pin head and traveling faster than an object thrown by hand.
• Craft type work and machinery operation – over 40% of injuries happened to craft workers (mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, etc.) – around 20% of accidents occurred with laborers – around 50% of the workers were in manufacturing and more than 20% were involved in construction.
• No eye protection training – almost 40% of injured workers received no eye protection training.
• Chemical contact – caused about 20% of all eye injuries in the workplace.

As you can see, safety eyewear is critical in many situations. From simple anti-fog safety glasses to lighted safety glasses to laser safety goggles, the type of safety glasses is just as important as their use. Identify the threats in your job situation and use protective eyewear that is appropriate for your job.

Some Companies Offering Good Safety Glasses

There are some well known companies and some lesser known firms offering excellent products in the safety eyewear industry. When you look for good protective eyewear, your potential problem is not too few choices, but possibly too many. Much like the everyday eyewear industry, the amazing choices of lenses, tinting, and frames is so vast, it can be confusing. Yet, having many choices should ensure you find the exact safety glasses you need.

ABC Safety Glasses is one of the large websites offering many varieties from both major companies (DeWalt safety glasses, Uvex safety glasses, Smith & Wesson, etc.) and less well known sources (American Allsafe, Edge, Radians, etc.). All of their offerings are ANSI safety glasses (approved by the American National Standards Institute) and OSHA safety glasses (meeting the standards of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration).

Aearo safety glasses, a division of Aearo Technologies, produces excellent safety eyewear, normally marketed under the AO Safety name. They offer excellent and stylish safety goggles and glasses, including safety glasses side shields, safety reading glasses, sports safety glasses and goggles, cutting safety glass (critical to welders, laser cutting work, etc.), wide varieties of tints, and both clear and prescription safety glasses.

3M safety glasses are also offered in excellent quality and a wide selection of styles, tints, and types of hard-coated polycarbonate lenses. Long recognized as a dependable manufacturer, their safety eyewear meets or exceeds all OSHA and ANSI (their Standard for Occupational and Educational Eye and Face Protection) standards.

Because the Internet can be so efficient, use the web to window shop the hundreds of available choices for protective eyewear. Ask your peers what favorites they have. Also search for distributors that allow you to purchase wholesale safety glasses. You want the best safety eyewear you can afford and saving money could be an added positive.

NIOSH and Industrial Safety Glasses

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health  (NIOSH) is very influential in providing information and standards for safety eyewear. Their comments cover all the industries that inherently dictate the use of safety glasses or goggles. Like the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), they have found that the majority of eye injuries and abrasions are caused by flying small particles created by job duties such as cutting wood, metal, or cement. Even otherwise harmless dust, when put in motion by job activities, can cause serious injuries to the sensitive regions in the eye. NIOSH, like OSHA, recommends safety glasses with side shields as their data suggests that particulates can still damage your eyes even when they don’t impact you directly.

In conjunction with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) studies, NIOSH strongly cautions medical workers, animal handlers, laboratory staff, and even janitorial employees to use protective eyewear, not just for impact-related dangers, but to prevent the transfer of infectious diseases that can be spread to you through your exposed mucous membranes in your eyes. Simple blood spatters, coughing, and sneezing can transfer disease to your eyes should one of these come in direct contact.

Through their “Eye Safety Tool Box Talk” publication, NIOSH, in partnership with OSHA and ANSI (American National Standards Institute), identifies hazards, standards (ANSI Z87.1 Eye and Face Protection Standard), and effective training for all employees to help protect and safeguard their eyes at their workplace.