Safety Eyewear. Protect your eyes.

Eye safety at home is just as important as in the workplace

Many of us undertake DIY jobs around the home but don’t take the time to consider the value in protecting our eyes while we do them. These jobs can be as mundane as mowing the lawn to laborious building projects. As a result, 21% of Australians have sustained an eye injury when carrying out these home jobs².

What you can do to prevent injury?

• Always wear certified safety eye protection while performing your job if required in the workplace or undertaking a task at home.
• Don’t substitute your normal glasses or sunglasses as a substitute protection for proper certified eyewear protection.
• Stay on top of regular eye tests to ensure your vision is optimal for your particular work.

Your current prescription can be put into certified safety frames. This means you don’t have to wear your “everyday glasses”, worry about goggles fogging, blurriness or fit comfort. Also not having to wear safety googles over your glasses means you can experience the best vision in all situations, safely.

Certified and compliant safety eyewear, what’s the difference?

When a product is certified it has been independently tested to comply with Australian and New Zealand Standards. Products that are compliant adhere to the compliance of a Standard but have not undertaken an independent certification to prove this.

Why certification is important

Certification is not open to interpretation, unlike a level of compliance. The eyewear product is tested by an independent certified laboratory and quality control processes reviewed and validated to achieve certification.

The reason certification is important is that any task that involves airborne particles or hazardous substances carries a risk of eye injury. The eye is extremely delicate and permanent vision loss can result from a relatively minor injury. Many industries like construction, mining, manufacturing, healthcare, etc. mandate safety wear including certified eye protection to minimise the risk of eye injury.

Eyewear protection and COVID-19

It’s important to be aware that there is no specific Standard that applies to eye protection specifically for biological hazards such as COVID-19. Guidance for eye protection standards from the World Health Organisation advise goggles or faceshields to be appropriate protection for the eyes³. Goggles can be worn over the top of prescription frames or prescription lenses can be fitted to goggles.

¹Comcare (2012), Eye Health in the Workplace, https://www.comcare.gov.au/about/forms-publications/documents/publications/safety/eye-health-in-the-workplace-guide.pdf

²Optometry Australia (2020), The 2020 Vision Index, https://www.optometry.org.au/wp-content/uploads/GVFL/Year_2020/2020-Vision-Index-Report-FINAL.pdf

³International Review of Ophthalmic Optics (2020), COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Eye Protection Guidance, https://www.pointsdevue.com/article/covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-ppe-and-eye-protection-guidance