Safety Glasses

Safety Glasses

Your eyes – some refer to them as windows to the soul. Others simply use them to see. Either way, it’s hard to argue that your eyesight isn’t important. When working in at-height, industry, and construction there is no shortage of hazardous situations, materials, and chemicals that can be flying around the job site all day, every day. With your eyes being a crucial part of your profession, keeping them safe is a priority. That’s why safety glasses are such an important part of your PPE setup.

Safety glasses come in a range of sizes, colors, shapes, and lens tents. While color and shape are typically features that are based on your preference, size and lens tents can make the difference when wearing safety glasses. Size of the safety glasses affects how comfortable they are and how much of your eyes they protect. While lens tent offers different features like anti-fog, indoor, outdoor, polarized, and a range of other benefits.

Most safety glasses are “all-purpose” meaning that they can be used on the job and on the weekends. Our selection of safety glasses also include glasses that have the ability to transform into goggles. It is important to mention that while safety glasses are very versatile, there are specialty applications, like welding, that will require eye protection beyond the capabilities of safety glasses.

When picking your pair of safety glasses it is important to look at the standards the glasses meet. After all, anyone can claim that their safety glasses are safe – that’s why standards have been put in place. Specifically, the ANSI Z87.1 Standard for eye protection. The Z87.1 Standard outlines what requirements safety glasses must meet as well as how they should be tested.

The ANSI Z87.1 Standard has four different qualifying tests. If the eye protection passes the first test, they meet the Z87.1 Standard. This means they are good protection, but not great as this test does not qualify the glasses for use in impact hazard situations. If you are going to be doing work where there is or might be, an impact hazard your glasses must meet the remaining 3 tests. If it does, it will have the Z87+ marking.

Sometimes there are jobs that require even more protection than the Z87+ Standard requires. That is where military grade eye protection should be used. The MIL-PRF 32432 Standard represents that the eye protection has passed an additional round of testing.

For more information on the ANSI Z87.1, Z87+, and MIL-PRF 32432 Standards and for details on the testing process, check out our blog post here.

Got questions or looking for a specific pair/style of safety glasses? Click here to get in touch with one of our Gear Experts®.