Nothing lasts forever and that includes your safety glasses. Although they're a low maintenance item, wear and tear, damage, and degradation will render them less effective at protecting your eyes. In fact, if they're sufficiently damaged, they aren't protecting your eyes at all. At least with no glasses, you would keep your eyes out of harm's way. Exposing your eyes to dangerous situations with bad safety glasses is asking for an injury or worse. Here are five indications that your safety glasses need replacement:
They're Used
Picking up a pair of used safety glasses from a yard sale or the online equivalent, is simply exchanging one pair of bad glasses with another. You have no idea how it was used or abused by the previous owner. Perhaps …show more content…
Polycarbonate, often used as the lens material, will degrade over time through UV exposure. Some degrade more slowly than others depending on whether any special processes were used in its manufacture to make it UV resistant. If the pair is several decades old, its UV resistance is questionable. The same argument applies to the frame if it's plastic.
The Lenses Are Scratched
When viewing the world through scratched lenses, the brain can easily filter out a few scratch marks. At some point however, the optical quality will become very poor when the lenses get scuffed up with too many scratches. Using them will be like wearing dirty glasses except that you won't be able to clean the "dirt" off. If you use them in a dark environment, glare will be a big problem when the scratches scatter light passing through the lenses. The poor vision caused by this problem is a safety issue in itself.
Even looking through a pair of scuffed up prescription safety glasses during the day can have adverse consequences. What these consequences are, depend on the situation and the task you're doing. If you're an electrician, and you can barely make out the labels on the wiring, you could injure yourself or perhaps someone
They're Used
Picking up a pair of used safety glasses from a yard sale or the online equivalent, is simply exchanging one pair of bad glasses with another. You have no idea how it was used or abused by the previous owner. Perhaps …show more content…
Polycarbonate, often used as the lens material, will degrade over time through UV exposure. Some degrade more slowly than others depending on whether any special processes were used in its manufacture to make it UV resistant. If the pair is several decades old, its UV resistance is questionable. The same argument applies to the frame if it's plastic.
The Lenses Are Scratched
When viewing the world through scratched lenses, the brain can easily filter out a few scratch marks. At some point however, the optical quality will become very poor when the lenses get scuffed up with too many scratches. Using them will be like wearing dirty glasses except that you won't be able to clean the "dirt" off. If you use them in a dark environment, glare will be a big problem when the scratches scatter light passing through the lenses. The poor vision caused by this problem is a safety issue in itself.
Even looking through a pair of scuffed up prescription safety glasses during the day can have adverse consequences. What these consequences are, depend on the situation and the task you're doing. If you're an electrician, and you can barely make out the labels on the wiring, you could injure yourself or perhaps someone