Eye and face protection has come a long way from simple safety glasses. New technologies have helped to create a variety of protective devices specifically designed to provide appropriate protection in an number of hazardous situations. Eye and face protectors are classified by what they protect against including impact, heat, chemicals, dust and optical radiation. In fact, in work situations within the United States, OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, monitors and regulates the use of personal protective equipment, including eye and face protectors.
Spectacles
Safety spectacles are used to shield the eye. Safety spectacles can have side shields to provide increased protection. The frames are made of metal or plastic. Lenses can be plano, with no correction, or full prescription lenses to improve vision while maintaining a high level of safety. Lenses can also be tinted and polarized to provide increased protection.
Safety spectacles protect against impact from flying objects, high temperature exposure and, when fitted with filter lenses, from exposure to optical radiation, particularly from lasers.
Goggles
Safety goggles are used to protect the eyes against injury by forming a seal around the eyes. They can be nonventilated, indirectly ventilated or fully ventilated for proper air flow while preventing objects from entering the eyes. Prescription lenses can be incorporated into goggles to improve vision while maintaining a high level of safety.
Goggles are often worn to protect against foreign objects, such as dust, chips or flying fragments, from entering the eye. Goggles can also provide protection against exposure to splashing chemicals, mists or fumes as well as heat protection. Fitted with the right lenses, goggles can provide limited protection from optical radiation from low-energy welding.
Face Shields
Face hields offer a higher level of protection, especially when used with spectacles or goggles. Shields protect not only the eyes, but the face as well. Shields generally consist of the face shield window and the head gear that holds it in place.
Windows come in either glass, plastic or wire screen. They can be clear or filtered. For high-energy welding practices, new high-tech windows with LCD panels in them can turn dark when exposed to high levels of ultraviolet light and turn clear when no longer exposed.
Wire windows provide greater impact protection but are not used in chemical or liquid hazard situations.
Head gear support the window. It can be as simple as a head strap or as complicated as a hard hat assembly. Usually, the head gear is designed to allow the window to be swiveled over the head to move it away from the face, as needed.
Face shields protect against impact, high heat hazards, chemical splashes and, in some instances optical radiation.
Helmets
Sports helmets that have a risk of impact to the face such as hockey, lacrosse, football and fencing require full-face mask helmets. These are usually made of fiberglass, polycarbonate, plastic or metal and provide impact protection from high-velocity projectiles, such as a hockey puck; from person to person impact as in football; or from impact from a foil, sword or other weapon in martial arts.
Motorcycle and vehicular helmets offer protection from flying foreign objects including insects, road debris, dust and water.
