Safety Glasses

[david.elsbury]

Hi there

I know that when doing certain activities, you should wear safety glasses. Power tools work, stuff like that. But what do you do when you wear eyeglasses too? At school, the teachers in the 'shop (and science) classes said not to bother with the safety glasses as long as your glasses covered your eyes properly.

 

I find it really difficult to wear safety glasses since they are not a good fit over my glasses, and it makes it pretty difficult to see. So I usually end up taking them off.

 

Thoughts?

Suggestions on alternative safety glasses/ retailers I can look into?

 

Thanks

David

[Jivemaster]

Look out an ophthalmic optician who can and will prescriba and source safety specs to your eyes then you only have one pair to wear to get safety and eye correction. -- It can be done in specs and goccles and full face masks so there should be a prescription to suit your safety need.

[the kid]

The best ones I've use were more like ski goggles and fitted perfectly over.

Is there any special regulation re saftey glasses ?

[Suzette]

Most places that sell safety goggles also sell ones that are designed to fit over spectacles. Try looking in places like RS Components

[Simon Lewis]

Safety glasses vary according to the activity.

 

Some are designed to be resistant to specific groups of chemicals. It's quite likely that your glasses aren't resistant, hence the need for chemical resitant safety glasses.

 

Some are designed for impact (ejected material from power tools etc.)

Here, it's almost certain that your glasses aren't designed to withstand such material, so you need impact resitant safety glasses.

 

You should identify what the risk is, and select either safety glasses or prescription safety glasses with the correct characteristics.

 

I'm not a great fan of using one set over my own glasses, so most of my lab work was done with prescription safeties fitted with side shields to reduce risk from splashing.

 

However, when boiling perchoric acid and hydrofuoric acid extracts to dryness, I used a full face safety shield (like the land mine clearers). Those who remember their chemistry might appreciate why ;-)

[Boggy]

It is worth noting that the side shields on safety glasses are important. My Dad was drilling aluminium one day while wearing his normal glasses and had a piece go in his eye (he may have been blowing the swarf from the hole at the time). This little accident meant that he had to wear an eye patch for a week and I have had to wear safety glasses while drilling ever since (to my benefit)!

[Jram]

I think I'm in favour of the full-face masks instead - harder for dust (sawdust) to get in, and prevents rogue chips bursting your lip.

[jayselway]

Yesterday, a sparky was bashing some clips into the wall in the same club I was in, and even though I had suggested to wear specs for H&S (bearing in mind that it is an old building and who knows what's beneath the cheese walls), he didn't.

 

A nail from the clip split - as the safety announcement on the pack says - and it went straight through his specs, nearly missing his eye. Lucky escape... He went off to the shop and bought his own safety specs then, and wore them over his 1 lensed glasses... think he wore them home too... - You only get one pair of eyes.......

 

Jay