With approximately 50,000 eye injuries in Australia per year¹, it’s important that we protect our eyes with certified safety glasses.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Posted: Apr 26 2022
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Health Partners is committed to providing quality and affordable health care, and we value our members and our obligation to protect your privacy. As part of our responsibility in protecting your privacy, from time to time we review our policies to ensure we are meeting our obligations. We have recently made some updates to our Privacy Policy. Please click here to view the Health Partners Privacy Policy.
© Copyright Health Partners. 2022 All Rights Reserved.
Health Partners is committed to providing quality and affordable health care, and we value our members and our obligation to protect your privacy. As part of our responsibility in protecting your privacy, from time to time we review our policies to ensure we are meeting our obligations. We have recently made some updates to our Privacy Policy. Please click here to view the Health Partners Privacy Policy.
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