WHY PRESCRIPTION SAFETY GLASSES?
Many workers underestimate the importance of eye health, especially when working 9-5, five days a week. Who has time to go see an optometrist? But eye health is extremely important, and should be on your radar, especially if you work in an environment that requires you to wear safety glasses. A research study undertaken by Prevent Blindness America showed that over 700,000 Americans suffer eye injuries on the job each year. In addition, another 125,000 people injure their eyes at home, not to mention the countless thousands of eye injuries that go unreported.
Grinding and welding are the two most common tasks being performed when an eye injury occurs, but there is a very wide range of circumstances that can result in an eye injury. The construction and manufacturing industries, and to a lesser extent the agriculture, forestry & fishing industries and the mining industry, appear to be the industries where workers most commonly sustain an eye injury in the course of work. This is probably due to the tasks being undertaken and the processes that can generate lightweight foreign bodies travelling at high speed. Not surprisingly, many of the eye injuries occurred when the person was not wearing appropriate eye protection. Fortunately, most of these injuries can be avoided with a high-quality pair of safety glasses with impact-resistant lenses.
Prescription safety glasses are not regular glasses and regular glasses are not a replacement for safety glasses. One major difference in these two products are material. Safety glasses are made reinforced material, hence chances of them shattering on impact is slim to none, because they are built and tested to withstand high impact projectiles that regular glass would not. Normal glasses, while sturdy and built for everyday wear, are made of a plastic called acetate that is not heavy duty enough to protect your eyes in work situations. The second main difference is that regular glasses do not give the 360 covered that safety glasses do. Regular glasses are meant for comfort, not protection.
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Some workers may have used the fitover type of safety glasses or goggles to wear on top of their regular glasses at work. This is not a really good idea, as the fitover type of safety glasses/goggles is being worn over the regular glasses, it is more heavy and not comfortable to wear. On top of that, it is not firmly worn on the face, and may fall off when the impact is too great. And not to forget, fogging is also one of the main problem. Hence, getting a proper prescription safety glasses is always a better choice - safer and more comfortable.
