There is a large number of emergencies related to eye injuries, and the majority of these cases are due to the lack of safety eyewear or other forms of eye protection, or eyewear that doesn’t fit properly or does not provide suitable protection like proper safety eyewear.
This means most of these eye injuries in the workplace were preventable with the right eye protection and protective eyewear.
It's strongly recommended to wear safety glasses, even just for dust protection, or for more dangerous risks such as a chemical splash or other hazardous materials or chemical handling.
But how do you know if your safety glasses are safe enough for the job? It only takes a closer look inside your safety glasses where you can find markings that indicate the protection level.
In this article, we find out more about one of these markings, including Z87.
We discover what requirements any safety wear with this marking should fulfill, and we also take a look at other markings in your protective eye wear.
General Requirements For ANSI Z87
The Z87 marking in your safety glasses refers to the ANSI Z87 certification which means that these protective glasses have passed certain tests that check how they handle an encounter with different hazards.
These safety tests for safety wear set a certain standard around what can protect you from specific hazards that you may face in your workplace.
Some of the most common hazards to eye protection that you may encounter are:
- Dust
- Blunt impact
- Small particles
- Radiation
- Droplets and splashes
- Flying objects
Check the packaging of your safety glasses to read any important product information how the safety eyewear manufacturer ensures that they meet the product’s ANSI Z87.1 standard and provide protection for your eyes from potential harm.
These standards do not just apply to normal safety glasses but they can also be found with prescription safety lenses and other face protection devices that meet and exceed all the high-impact testing requirements for eye protection.
The standards for ANSI Z87.1 continually evolve as researchers develop better technology to help create protective wear with improved safety and other characteristics.
In recent years, the Z87 standard was standardized with International Safety Equipment (ISEA) standards.
This makes it simpler for wearers to find the right safety glasses based on any potential complications and hazards they may encounter in their workplace.
Some may need to consider prescription eyewear that offers full face protection, and most of these are subjected to rigorous testing to ensure that eyes can remain intact, keeping you out of the emergency room!
As part of recent Z87 updates, there are also clear definitions of UV radiation and the application of new technologies.
With continued updates to these safety wear standards, we will see improved protection for specific jobs, so your safety gear matches with the protection against suitable hazards.
Z87 safety glasses are designed to be used in a range of different environments, including construction sites, laboratories and even when you are doing DIY at home.
This type of protective glasses are essential when working with sharp objects, flying debris and chemicals.
ANSI rated safety goggles or glasses have been specifically designed to give you protection against heavy impact through debris, chemical splashes, dust particles.
They can even protect your eyes against a certain amount of radiation and intense heat, making them great safety products for those that frequently work in hazardous conditions where it's necessary that eyewear and other dust protection eyewear meets certain standards for protection, similar to face shields.
This all-round protection with ANSI Z87.1 rated safety glasses makes them very versatile and suitable for a wide range of different applications.
How Are Z87 Safety Glasses Tested?
When a pair of safety glasses or any eyewear has achieved the ANSI Z87.1 rating, then it has gone through a series of rigorous trials.
These tests analyze specifically how well they can protect your eyes against liquid spray, dust particles and blunt force, as well as whether they can offer wider face protection.
While the tests do not cover all workplace scenarios, they are interrogative and intense, checking that the safety glasses can be used as protective wear for professionals in different industries for face protection or even simply to protect eyes from specific hazards encountered in certain contexts.
People in certain industries and workplaces are required to wear ANSI rated glasses by law. This includes anywhere where workers use grinding, sawing and drilling tools, or handle bio products, chemicals or other harmful substances.
Impact Testing
High velocity impact testing on something as reasonably small as glasses is intricate work but these tests find out how the glasses react to high energy impact with larger objects as well as medium energy impact with smaller objects, such as a steel ball.
Safety glass is often used to make such goggles. Safety glass is very durable especially when subjected to high impact or even non ionizing radiation, but still offers the visibility offered by personal eye wear.
The high velocity impact tests will check how the safety eyewear performs based on impact weight and speed.
There is also additional permanent marking on your safety glasses which indicates a pass for this test based on the stringent marking criteria.
Look out for either a “+” on your goggle arms, or a “W+” on the lens. These permanent markings are the best indication of the quality of the eyewear.
Splash Testing
Dust and liquid testing is as rigorous as the impact tests. Not all safety glasses pass this test, also due to design.
For example, safety goggles that feature large vents usually don’t pass splash testing because the gaps are too large so dust and liquid splashes can enter the glasses.
However, some safety glasses manufacturers got around this issue by designing indirect venting systems which allow a better airflow but no liquid inside the glasses.
This is fantastic for disease control and for protecting against a chemical splash.
Such safety eyewear helps to minimize potential harm created by various risks in the workplace while also helping to improve global competitiveness by meeting voluntary consensus standards.
There are three different markings on safety glasses that indicate that your goggles have passed these ANSI trials.
- D3 marking: This symbol shows that your safety glasses resist any liquid splashes
- D4 marking: This symbol shows that your safety goggles protect your eyes against a variety of dust
- D5 marking: This symbol shows that your safety eyewear resist fine dust particles
Other ANSI Tests
There are a range of other tests that are required to get an ANSI z87 certificate. One of the most important tests is for UV protection.
Any safety glasses that passed the ultraviolet test will be indicated with the “U” symbol, plus a number, on the glasses. The test involves subjecting the goggles to ultraviolet light.
So, when if your eyewear bear permanent “U6” or “U5” symbol inside your glasses, then this means that they are extremely protective against ultraviolet light.
Markings On Safety Glasses
As part of ANSI regulations, the ansi Z87.1 standards require markings on each pair of glasses that are easy to understand by the wearer to ensure that he picks the right glasses for the job.
Here are all the ANSI markings and what they mean.
- Z87+ - The safety glasses passed high-velocity impact tests
- Ansi Z87 - The safety glasses passed basic impact tests
- D3 - The safety glasses are droplet and splash resistant
- D4 - The safety glasses protect against dust particles
- D5 - The safety glasses protect against fine dust
- W (plus a scale number) - The safety glasses protect against any particles flying through the air when welding
- U (plus a scale number) - The safety glasses protect against UV light
- R (plus a scale number) - The safety glasses plus a scale number shows the level of infrared light protection
- L (plus a scale number) - The safety glasses have a light filter
- Z87-2 - This marking is usually found on the front of the frame, and it shows that these are prescription safety glasses
- H - The safety glasses are specifically designed for small head sizes
- V - The safety glasses have photochromic lenses
- S - The safety glasses have a special lens tint
- X - The safety glasses resist fogging and they have passed a fog test
- + The plus symbol on the lens of safety glasses shows that they have been impact tested
Final Thoughts
Safety glasses may not be cheap but they are absolutely vital when you are doing certain jobs or you handle chemicals or other liquids.
The right protective gear can minimize the risk of any eye injuries, and the ANSI Z87 standards for safety glasses ensures that safety goggles are suitably protective.
ANSI Z87 standards have been incredibly impactful, especially in offering welding protection, and fine dust protection to become truly top safety glasses.
They will help protect your eyes against splashes, dust, high-impact force and other hazards.