The Covid pandemic showed exactly how important personal protective equipment (PPE) can be. However, PPE is important for any manual laborer or DIY-er working with tools…
If you’re working at anything more physically demanding than a desk job, then any PPE you wear can help protect you from whatever physical harm or hazards that may be present in your working environment, such as safety glasses, which maintain eye protection.
Not only does it make your working day more pleasant, and thus also help productivity, but it can also prevent you from contracting both short-term and long-term conditions, and keeps you from being liable for your own injuries.
In this article, we’re going to compare and contrast three different types of face PPE, examining the pros and cons of each of them before rounding off with a conclusion at the end.
Specifically, we’ll be looking at safety glasses, goggles and face shields. By the end of the article, you’ll be in a position to decide which might be best for you and your particular work.
Please feel free to scroll ahead to any section that jumps out at you. Here goes…
Safety Glasses
Let’s kick this off by describing the difference between safety glasses and goggles, since the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Safety glasses are merely a certain type of glasses.
They may only offer protection around the front of your eyes, and the sides, but not the tops, which means that hazardous substances could potentially get through the safety glasses and compromise eye protection.
That said, safety glasses are quite different from regular glasses.
Most safety glasses are made from polycarbonate rather than glass, which gives them a very high level of impact resistance, which helps to give adequate protection from physical hazards or even chemical hazards and is important when you’re working with heavy materials or parts.
And at the same time, they’re also very lightweight and comfortable to wear.
What’s more, safety glasses can contain prescription lenses, which is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have full 20/20 vision.
Wearing eye protection like prescription safety glasses can be incredibly useful and effective in adding further protection, especially when worn in combination with other eye and face protection to provide immense and excellent appropriate eye protection.
Safety glasses are the bare minimum when it comes to eye protection, and it offers considerably less protection than the other types of safety eyewear.
Truly tight-fitting eye protection is strongly recommended when seeking suitable safety eyewear.
Sure they can protect against impact from wood chips and such, and they even help provide laser light protection from damaging your retinas, but they provide no real protection from hazardous liquids or vapors like molten metal, or chemical splashes.
If you work with dangerous liquids, then you will want protection for both the eyes that has splash protection while still allowing in more visible light than others.
Here follows a list of settings where safety glasses are sufficient:
- Education settings
- General engineering workshop
- General factory areas
- Light chemical use with non-hazardous substances
- Medical and dentistry
- Waste handling
Safety Goggles
Unlike safety glasses, safety goggles fit tightly to both the eyes, occasionally with suction, and are secured in place with an elastic strap.
This helps to make them more accommodating for round face shapes, and prevents the need for safety frames on the sides.
This can help to prevent injury from flying objects unexpectedly entering and plastic debris hitting the eyes.
The clear advantage of this is that it offers better eye protection, preventing small particles and hazards from ever getting to the eye coming from any direction.
Safety goggles offer sufficient protection from dangerous injuries in all the situations that safety glasses do, thanks to the protective seal, and in addition situations besides.
The list of additions is as follows:
- Chemical cleaning
- Hazardous chemical use
- High dust environment
- Laboratories
- Masonry work (brick/stone/concrete)
- Metal grinding/turning
- Spray-painting
- Woodworking with power tools
You might be forgiven for assuming that if you need a prescription to see clearly, that you may have to make do with safety glasses rather than safety goggles as protective eyewear.
However, I am pleased to report that this is not the case, and that prescription safety goggles are readily available to order online, ready to protect you from general indoor hazards.
You can also get safety goggles that can fit over your prescription glasses, so you can wear your glasses without the need for side shields, or contact lenses and the goggles will still provide protection that you need.
It’s also important to note at this point that safety goggles can be vented or unvented, and this has implications for how well they protect your eyes…
Non-vented goggles can protect your eyes from the likes of vapors, mists and fumes.
Vented goggles do not provide the same level of protection, and liquids, mists and vapors could pass through the ventilation holes.
Face Shields
Eye protection may be the most important element of personal protective equipment, but if you wish to protect your entire face from hazards, rather than just your eyes alone, then you should be thinking about using a face shield instead of goggles or glasses.
Face shields are a popular form of PPE in the medical, dental and veterinary industries. This is because they can protect the wearer’s face from the splatter of body fluids.
And this is not limited to head-on splatter, since face shields are usually curved around the sides of the face.
However, it’s important to note at this point that different face shields differ in the extent to which they protect the sides of your face. Some are better than others.
However, they also have benefits in many other scenarios besides.
They aren’t recommended so much for general factory areas, or around hazardous chemicals, but they are good in certain situations where safety goggles are insufficient, for example in furnace operation, pouring and casting.
Other than that, their remit is pretty much the same as for safety goggles.
It’s also worth noting at this point that you can get face shields that attach directly to your prescription glasses. And they can be anti fog, too.
It’s also possible to wear additional eye protection under certain face shields.
Impact Resistance
One of the determining factors in deciding which eye protection to invest in is the level of impact resistance. You should look for PPE that meets impact resistance standards.
This can range from low impact, which means that it can withstand impact from an object moving at 12 meters per second, through to extra high impact, which means that it can withstand impact from an object moving up to 190 meters per second.
The Lens
You also need to consider the lens in your eye protection.
Clear lenses are best in many situations, but you also need to think about whether you need to filter glare and enhance contrast, or filter harmful UV rays.
Wrap Up
Unequivocally, the key to determining which eye protection to wear depends on your particular circumstances, and the relevant OSHA guidelines.
For more information on these guidelines, please refer to our other article titled “OSHA and Safety Glasses: A Guide” which is available on this link.
Although ideally, you should have a risk assessment done by a qualified OHSA professional to assess the situation for you, and inform you of exactly what form of eye protection you need.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the PPE that offers the best protection for your face would be a wrap-around face shield.
But safety goggles do have the benefit of tightness, which means that there is even less danger of anything unwanted getting to your eyes.
Safety goggles are the type that is suited to the widest range of circumstances, and it is only if you are involved in furnace operation, pouring and casting that you would need a face shield rather than safety goggles.
Things do become more complicated if you need a prescription to do your work. However, there’s a solution for everybody.
You can either order eye protection with prescription lenses, or simply get protection that fits on or around your prescription glasses.
If you wish to wear a face shield, there is no reason why you can’t wear additional eye protection under it such as safety goggles.