Sport & Performance
Safety Eyewear
New Prescription Safety Glasses standards
The AS/NZS 1337.6:2007: ‘Personal eye protection – Prescription eye protectors against low and medium impact’ has defined new standards for prescription safety glasses.
Key changes to the safety glasses standard:
- No glass lenses – even if hardened – are going to meet the new standard.
- The frames, not just the lenses, must also meet certain requirements. Because of the cost of compliance testing, it is unlikely that many fashion frames will be labelled as meeting safety glass standards.
- This means that safety glasses for work will almost certainly be a separate set of spectacles to your own personal pair. (Unless of course you like walking around town with side-shields on your glasses!)
- Both the lenses and the frame will have indicators on them to enable safety authorities to check that any spectacles worn comply with impact protection standards.
If you don’t wear normally wear glasses, or if your glasses aren’t compliant with the new safety standards, then be sure to wear protective over-goggles or other approved means for any tasks requiring eye protection.
At Sharpe & Fowler, we can make prescription safety glasses to meet these new standards. Be sure to mention your safety requirements when you have your next eye examination.
Eye Health Facts
Do exercises help eyes?
Each eye's movements are controlled by 6 different muscles - so when you move your eyes 12 different muscles are needing to work in co-operation. Luckily for most people, this all happens without having to think about it. Some people do have trouble co-ordinating the movements and the focus of their eyes, and so for these people eye exercises are helpful, leading to clearer and more comfortable vision.
However it's important to know the limitation of eye exercises. For many conditions eye exercises don't help at all. Be sure to know the cause of your vision problem before starting eye exercises - so that the right treatment is given, and so that you don't spend a lot of time exercising for no benefit.