When should you wear safety glasses?

Knowing when to keep what safe -and how – is important. We don’t always know what actions or measures need to be taken in order to ensure both our safety, and that of those around us. But in some cases, it’s not too hard to assess what may be a danger to your eyes – and thus how to respond to that danger. Safety glasses are a necessity in some lines of work and hobbies, but what exactly are those? When should you wear your safety glasses?

Knowing the Differences

Safety glasses might be called something else depending on where you work – but it’s all the same. Whether they’re safety visors, safety specs, or even lab goggles. What’s important is understanding the risks to your eyes, and how best these risks can be dealt with.

Keeping your eyes safe when working in a Lab…

Then it really depends on work, but if in the context of a lab, then safety goggles should really be worn all the time. Of course, it can most definitely help if you’ve invested in some prescription lab goggles, which will make the whole idea much more appealing. Nobody likes to stack their glasses beneath their safety goggles.

If you’re not interested in keeping your safety glasses on all the time, then there’s a much simpler answer that may come off as obvious – lab goggles should always be worn when working with chemicals and substances, especially those that can prove irritating to the skin, or in any other way harmful towards organs as sensitive as the eyes.

Here are some of the prime dangers to the eyes that you ought to be aware of in a lab environment:

Biohazards: Certain substances can present a very immediate chemical or otherwise biological hazard, and if you lack the sufficient eye protection then you could end up hurt in more ways than just the physical.

Radiation: Another one that may be common depending in your lab environment – radiation is present in all things, but can be stronger in certain elements. It’s the prime reason why you should never look directly at radioactive substances without the appropriate eye protection, but this goes equally for all kinds of radiation – such as direct sources of light. It’s in cases like these where tinted safety glasses might be a good investment to look into or lead glasses if necessary.

Fumes/Debris: Though you may consider it more dangerous to inhale the fumes rather than let them into your eyes (and inhalation is by no means a recommendation either) it’s important to note that not all fumes are safe enough to pass over your skin without consequence – thus, eye protection should be worn when dealing with fumes as well. This combined with the possibility of debris, things sent flying across the room or glass shattering and bursting because of a bad reaction, are altogether an encouraging reason to take eye safety seriously when working in any kind of lab environment.  You should be considering full seal safety glasses in this instance or have appropriate breathing apparatus in place.

The right safety eyewear for working in Construction…

Another profession that has need for safety eyewear is that in the field of construction, whether that be carpentry or manufacturing or just about anything else. A lot of industrial equipment can pose severe danger to exposed eyes.

Sawblades might produce burning sparks, belt sanders and grinders might create projectiles, and the list of possibilities for potential injuries only goes on. There’s also the possibility of sawdust irritating the eyes. As such, when working in these kinds of jobs, it’s important to always wear your safety eyewear when either working with equipment, or when in an environment where equipment is being used.

Safety Glasses when working at home!

Eye safety when working at home is often neglected, and this isn’t exactly a good thing – most jobs in construction and laboratories will guide you through the whole process of personal safety, but you don’t have anybody to set down those same regulations when working at home. Therefore, it’s important that you set those regulations yourself.

Whether you’re cooking in the kitchen, fixing electrical appliances, or even just using everyday cleaning chemicals in the bathroom, the potential for harming your eyes at home is near endless – about as vast as the workplace, especially if you’re some doing home care.

Even right outside your home, the possibility for injury isn’t any less minimal. If working on your roof, or doing simple yard work, or any similar activities – you never know what kinds of dangers may present themselves. Something as small as a nail or a bolt getting loose could lead to an unexpected injury if you aren’t prepared.

So, you may not exactly put on safety glasses while cooking or bleaching the toilet bowl – but when working on live wires from electrical appliances or handling tools around the house, it’s definitely going to be important to keep an open mind to all the dangers that can spring up out of seemingly nowhere.

So, When should you wear safety glasses?

It’s not the trickiest thing to figure out when a situation would and wouldn’t warrant the use of safety glasses – it’s ultimately up to your own judgement if there are no regulations in place to help you figure it out.

As long as you consider all the chemicals that could spray, the potential objects that could become projectiles, and so on, then you’ll be able to make a clear judgement as to whether or not your prescription safety specs should make another appearance. Who knows, sometimes bothering to go the extra step for safety can save you a lot of regret in the long run.