Need help navigating the standards and common problems workers have with eyewear protection? Here’s what you should know.
OSHA relies on American National Standards Institute/International Safety Equipment Association (ANSI/ISEA) consensus standards for eyewear.
A good fit is a prerequisite for getting employees to use and keep their eyewear on.
Some employers will pay to have one pair of prescription safety lenses made per person per year, but there are less expensive options.
You can select eyewear with anti-fog coating, which can be either hydrophobic so that water beads up and rolls off, or hydrophilic, which absorbs the condensation.
Safety managers often struggle to know what kind of eye and face protection to choose that meets the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard. And even if the eyewear is compliant, often it does not get used because of fit and comfort issues—leading to thousands of people blinded each year from work-related eye injuries.
“For the most part, comfort and usability are why people avoid wearing safety eyewear, whether it’s heavy, or it pinches their nose or their ears the wrong way, or it fogs up, potentially interfering with their vision,” says Eric Cayne, national accounts manager for Milwaukee Tool. “If you look at the stats, a majority of injuries happen because the worker isn’t wearing their eye protection.”
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.133 says: “The employer shall ensure that each affected employee uses appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to eye or face hazards from flying particles, molten metal, liquid chemicals, acids or caustic liquids, chemical gases or vapors, or potentially injurious light radiation.”
The rule also states that the eyewear must include side protection when there is a hazard from flying objects, and prescription lenses must be either incorporated in the eyewear itself, or be able to fit underneath the protective lenses.
OSHA relies on American National Standards Institute/International Safety Equipment Association (ANSI/ISEA) consensus standards for eyewear. The most recent version, ANSI/ISEA Z87.1-2025, prescribes “the general requirements, testing, permanent marking, selection, care, and use of protectors to minimize the occurrence and severity or prevention of injuries.”
The ANSI standard specifies multiple tests, including two impact tests, to determine the quality of any protective eyewear product. In the U.S., manufacturers perform their own testing and mark each model showing that it endorses the corresponding ANSI standard.
“Employers should be looking for those markings, specifically with compliance to ANSI standards,” Cayne explains. “Make sure the markings include the manufacturer identification.”
A “Z87” marking signifies that the glasses meet the standard, and individual eyewear models can carry additional markings, such as:
Z87-2 (prescription)
H (coverage)
+ (impact)
W and shade number (welding)
U and scale number (UV radiation)
R and scale number (IR radiation)
L and scale number (visible light)
V (variable tilt)
S (special purpose)
X (anti-fog)
D3 (splash/droplet)
D4 (dust)
D5 (fine dust)
Whereas glasses shield the eyes from flying objects and sparks, goggles form a seal between the lens and the face to protect against airborne particles, dust and chemical splash.
According to Paul Savage, principal safety representative at Concurrent Technologies Corp., it’s especially important to distinguish between safety goggles marked for particulates versus those designed for splash.
“If you’re working with a chemical and you have a potential for splash, you don’t want to be wearing a particulate goggle, which is only designed to protect you from flying debris,” he says.
“Particulate goggles have perforated holes in the top to keep air flowing through, so if there is a splash, that chemical can get on those holes and drip right into your eyes,” Savage adds. “Instead, you want to have splash-type goggles with special venting ports that will not allow the liquid to get in.”
A good fit is a prerequisite for getting employees to use and keep their eyewear on.
“If it’s not comfortable, if you’re not able to perform the job the same way that you’re used to without the glasses, you’re more likely to take them off or not even use them at all,” Cayne says.
Plant managers often look for a single eyewear style that fits all the employees to minimize the number of pairs needed to keep in stock. One solution is flexible styles with adjustable temples and nosepieces that can be fit to almost any face.
Read more: Head, Face and Eye Protection for Your Workers: What to Use and When
In addition to fit and comfort, the style of the eyewear also contributes to whether it gets worn or not—even in industrial settings.
“You have to have a style that is somewhat fashionable—people want to wear something trendy that makes them look good,” Savage says.
“The wraparounds that have a built-in side shield seem to be a favorite of employees,” he says. “It’s better than wearing regular glasses with side shields on them.”
Employees who wear prescription lenses must still wear compliant eye protection.
Some employers will pay to have one pair of custom prescription safety lenses made per person per year. Working with a vendor can remove the hassle: The vendor accepts, reviews and fulfills all employee orders of company-approved prescription eyewear, while the employer can monitor the program via an administrative portal.
Another option is a style of eyewear that people can wear over their existing prescription eyeglasses, which also has the benefit of protecting the prescription lens from scratches.
“They’re a little larger to encapsulate the entire glass,” Cayne says. “It allows room for you to be comfortable while also wearing your everyday glasses. That’s personally what I use.”
If a pair of safety glasses or goggles fogs up—when walking out of a cold freezer into a room-temperature environment, for example—the employee is effectively blinded for the time it takes the fog to clear. But if the employee takes off the safety glasses during that time, he or she becomes vulnerable to an eye injury.
One solution is to select eyewear with anti-fog coating, which can be either hydrophobic so that water beads up and rolls off, or hydrophilic, which absorbs the condensation.
“When you are sweating hard, you can get just about anything to fog up,” Savage says. “But some safety managers provide PPE cleaning stations stocked with anti-fog towelettes or cleaning liquid that can help prevent fogging.”
Also, for workers in areas where lenses might get scratched, manufacturers offer anti-scratch coatings—sometimes combined with anti-fog features—to keep vision clear.
For more information on eye and face protection, OSHA’s website provides resources to help safety managers understand the hazards and solutions for their workplace.
