We’ll admit it: We like the best of everything. The best solutions for even the smallest problems make us feel resourceful, intelligent, and ahead of the game. We’d guess if you’ve stumbled upon this article, you’re a lot like us.
It’s pointless to invest your money in any product if you haven’t read some solid reviews or studied up on the features available to determine which ones you need. Safety glasses are no exception.
Whether it’s your job, yard work, home repair, or recreational activity that requires you to wear safety glasses, you want the very best. Together, the Stoggles team will help you evaluate your eye safety risks and determine what features you need in your protective eyewear.
Knowing What Your Eyes Need (and Want)
Not every task requires safety glasses, and the ones that do might need varying levels of protection. For instance, if you only need protection from UV rays while you’re attending an outdoor concert, a simple pair of UV protective sunglasses will do.
However, safety eyewear is also great for concerts (to protect you from rogue glow sticks and t-shirt cannons). From doing yard work to cutting onions to bathing your dog, safety eyewear is generally a good idea. It’s the essence of “expect the unexpected.”
Plus, if your eye health is at greater risk, you need different, more durable protection. Let’s review some of the most common eye hazards and determine which ones you’ll be exposed to in 2022.
We’re placing our bets on…
UV Exposure
Time in the sun helps build our vitamin D stores and creates the perfect backdrop for picnics and beach days. If you aren’t protecting your eyes, you’re risking your vision.
- The risk: Exposure to UV light from the sun or a welding arc, your eyes need protection from ultraviolet rays. Both UVA and UVB rays are known to cause damage to every structure in your eye, including premature aging. This can cause the eye to develop conditions like cataracts and macular degeneration far before their time.
UV exposure can also cause acute symptoms that take days or weeks to heal. Snow blindness, a type of photokeratitis that causes the cornea of the eye to burn, can cause burning, itching, watering, and a feeling of having grit or sand in the eye: It’s everything you hate about the beach with none of the fun stuff.
- The solution: UV protective safety glasses. Sunglasses with UV protection may be suitable if you’re only sitting in the sun or doing light activities. However, for sports, jobs that involve UV exposure, or work that involves debris or power tools, you need UV protective safety glasses.
It’s a good idea to invest in a pair of safety glasses that offers UV protection without tinting for days when the sun is behind the clouds. UV rays are still present, and you can still develop eye injuries from sun exposure even when it’s cloudy (with or without a chance of meatballs).
Just like sunscreen, UV protective glasses are a must anytime you’re outdoors for work or play.
Impact Damage
One minute you’re creating an edge along your sidewalk so perfect it looks professionally landscaped; the next, you’re in the emergency room getting stitches because your edger threw a rock into your eye.
- The risk: Impact to your eye from any type of debris or object. The risk of debris can happen at home, at work, or at play. From sports that involve balls, racquets, and bats to high-risk construction jobs, impact from debris can literally steal your vision.
If you aren’t wearing protective eyewear, the damage can be worse, but wearing glasses that aren’t impact-resistant can be their own danger. Glasses that shatter or break upon impact can send shards of material into your eye, causing cuts and abrasions.
- The solution: ANSI Z87.1-2020 certified impact-resistant glasses. The ANSI certification is the gold standard across numerous industries for reliable impact resistance. Safety eyewear that has this certification has undergone two important tests.
First, a high mass impact test ensures that weighted objects that strike the lenses won’t break or shatter them. Second, a high-velocity test to ensure that projectile objects that impact the lenses at high speeds won’t break or shatter them.
If you’re not sure whether you’re in a position where impact is a threat to your vision, play it safe and opt for fool-proof, shatter-proof, and impact-resistant safety eyewear.
Blue Light
Blue light is another type of high-energy visible light that can penetrate your eye and reach the retina. Exposure to it is universal.
- The risk: Blue light is emitted from the sun and from sources like LED televisions, LED light bulbs, computer screens, tablets, and of course, smartphones. Considering the numerous sources of blue light, no one is immune.
Blue light exposure can lead to Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), a condition that affects your eye health and causes eye fatigue, strain, and even blurry vision and headaches. Additionally, the fact that blue light can reach your retina raises suspicion that long-term exposure could harm your eyesight.
- The solution: Blue light blocking glasses. Blue light-blocking glasses filter out blue light and protect your eyes while you’re in the sun or using a computer, tv, or device that emits this type of light.
Blue light blocking lenses are embedded with blue light blocking technology that keeps your eyes safe without changing the way you see the world around you.
No matter the reason you’re shopping for safety eyewear, don’t skimp on blue light-blocking technology. The exposure is massive, and it’s easy to protect your eyes.
Allergens, Pollutants, Spills, and Splatters
Both liquids and allergens can irritate your eyes and even cause more damage depending on the toxicity of the liquid or severity of the allergen.
- The risk: You’re outdoors enjoying nature when the wind blows and brings with it a swarm of oak pollen that hits your eyes. Allergic conjunctivitis, a condition that causes redness, itching, watering, and even the development of thick mucus in the eye to form, can happen if you are exposed to an allergen.
Perennial allergens, like pet dander, smoke, and pollution, can also irritate your eyes and cause excessive tearing, itching, and redness.
The risk of liquids splashing or splattering in your eyes is high for healthcare workers exposed to bodily fluids more frequently than the average employee (one would hope). Even cleaning your house with chemicals poses a risk to your eye health if you’re working with liquid cleansing agents.
- The solution: Top and side shields. Regular glasses and sunglasses leave your eyes vulnerable, especially just under your eyebrows and by your temples. Side and top shields protect these areas and help keep liquids and allergens away from your eyes.
Obviously, allergens like smoke and pollution can still sneak their way into your eyes, but wearing safety glasses with side and top shields dramatically reduces the amount of exposure your eyes have.
It’s a good idea to always insist on side and top shields when shopping for safety eyewear, even if you think you don’t need them. We love a dramatic side-eye glance moment, but we love side shields even more.
Airborne Pathogens
In some cases, you may be exposed to airborne pathogens. In these instances, you’ll need a special type of protection usually only offered by goggles:
- The risk: Airborne diseases, microscopic bacteria, and fungi can cause damage to your overall health if they come in contact with your eyes. While most jobs and household activities won’t create this risk, some jobs require that your eyes be protected from these types of risks.
- The solution: Goggles. There’s really no other option for protecting your eyes from microscopic airborne diseases and pathogens than properly fitted, customized safety goggles. If your job requires these, your employer has probably provided you with a pair.
Airborne pathogens are extremely dangerous, pose an incredibly large health risk, and require more personal protective equipment than just safety goggles. If you are concerned your workplace exposes you to these types of risks, speak to your employer.
We realize this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the risks to your eye health, these are the most common, and most safety glasses are created to address these types of concerns.
Add-Ons: Safety Glasses that Do More in 2022
Not only do we love the best of things, we love an upgrade. The little added finishes make our favorite products, well, our favorites. You might not have considered that safety glasses can offer anything other than protection, but they most certainly can.
We say never settle for safety glasses that don’t give you the top level of protection you need.
Here are a few extras that you won’t know how you lived without:
Upgrade Number 1: Anti-Fog Lenses
Lenses that fog are annoying and dangerous. Anytime you have to remove your safety glasses to wipe them down, your eyes are immediately at risk of injury. Debris, allergens, impact, and UV light-all fair game when your glasses come off.
Lenses that need wiping take you off task or out of the game. Stopping to wipe down your lenses (over and over again) can affect your work productivity or leave you miles behind your friends on a bicycle ride.
If you’ve tried anti-fog wipes, you already know they aren’t a permanent solution. The best way to prevent foggy lenses is to invest in safety glasses that have been treated with an anti-fogging chemical. These lenses prevent fogging by changing the way the water beads on the surface, so you never have to remove your glasses and wipe away condensation.
Upgrade Number 2: Style Options
Why don’t safety glasses look good? If we had to guess, it’s because nobody asked them to.
At Stoggles, we decided enough was enough. The middle school science lab look is so… middle school, just like wearing too much body spray and musty gym lockers — thanks, but definitely no thanks. People need safety eyewear, and they shouldn’t have to choose between safety or style. We think that stylish eyewear is table stakes.
Stoggles are available in three different lens shapes, including a new cat eye shape, a retro classic that works perfectly for round face shapes, or simply anyone who loves trendier eyewear.
Stoggles are also available in round and rectangle shapes and in a plethora of translucent, ethereal, understated, and elegant colors. We give you the right options to let you fully customize your safety eyewear to suit your personal taste.
Upgrade Number 3: Supreme Comfort
Let’s face it: if your eyewear isn’t comfortable, you aren’t going to wear it. Safety eyewear that isn’t worn isn’t safe. In fact, it’s straight-up useless. At Stoggles, we’re just as concerned with your safety and style as we are about your comfort.
Our frames are all made from lightweight polycarbonate material that is naturally UV blocking, incredibly durable, and ultimately comfortable. We also offer our glasses in two different sizes, so you can get the perfect fit that puts Cinderella to shame.
Unlike standard, bulky safety glasses, you won’t experience slipping, sliding, or the heaviness on your face you’re used to.
Upgrade Number 4: Prescription Ready
If you wear glasses, you may feel like you’re destined to wear bulky, uncomfortable, over-the-glasses safety glasses or goggles when you need eye protection. With Stoggles, that isn’t the case. We’ll customize any pair of Stoggles with your specific prescription in-house, saving you time, money, and the embarrassment of ever being called “six eyes” again.
2022 Best in Class: Stoggles Takes It
Call us biased (because we are), but you simply can’t get more from safety eyewear than you can from a pair of Stoggles. No offense to other eyewear, but we’re just built different. Stoggles combine function and fashion because compromises are for choosing what movie to watch — not for eyewear.
Every pair of Stoggles comes standard with:
- ANSI Z87.1-2020 certification
- Impact resistance
- Blue light blocking technology
- UV protection
- Side and top shields
- Superior style and comfort
No matter your job, pastime, or task, Stoggles has your eyes covered (literally). We offer the essential protective features you have to have along with all the bonus features you could possibly want. The best in class with all the upgraded bells and whistles? Yes, please!
Your vision is important, but so are your style and comfort. Protect and value all three with Stoggles, the only hybrid eyewear that makes PPE fun and wearable all day, every day.
Sources:
How to Protect Your Eyes from UV Damage | HopkinsMedicine
ANSI/ISEA Z87.1-2020: Current Standard for Safety Glasses | ANSI
Research progress about the effect and prevention of blue light on eyes | PMC
Allergic Conjunctivitis: Types, Causes, and Symptoms | Healthline
