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
Seeing in the dark
Vision in the dark continues to improve for about 30 minutes after being in bright light, as our eyes switch over from the colour-rich, crisp vision of daylight to the less crisp but more sensitive vision of night.
Once the eyes are adapted to dark, their most sensitive area is off to one side of 'straight ahead', making it possible to sense something out of the corner of your eye that disappears when you look straight at it.
Retinal degenerations, a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa, and Vitamin A deficiency can all reduce night vision.
Ask an Optometrist
Do you have questions about eye health?