Safety Glasses (Protective Eyewear) degradation over time?

[sixpic]

Question for anyone who might know: does glass used in eyewear age in such a way that it becomes less safe over time? I have some old safety glasses, with steel wire rims and real glass lenses, that are probably at least sixty years old. I use them around the house to keep sawdust out of my eyes but have actual shooting glasses for the range.

What got me thinking about this was remembering a physics class I took years ago. We learned that glass is technically a liquid, not a solid, because it never completely solidifies. Ever see really old window glass from a house built in the 1700s? Notice the runs or ripples? That’s supposedly because the glass is actually running very slowly, like paint applied too thick.

Anyway, if glass or plastic used in protective eyewear does age, maybe when exposed to heat or sunlight, it might be prudent to change out safety glasses every X years. I heard once that hard hats need to be replaced every so often as the plastic ages; maybe safety glasses are like that?

On a related note, I read on a forum somewhere a comment by a guy who said if you wear glasses, then you are good to go for shooting glasses. Not so fast. As far as I know, prescription glasses are NOT necessarily safety rated, although they can be. I have some prescription safety glasses for shooting. If you wear glasses, don’t assume that you have adequate eye protection. Find out and be sure. Some eyeglass frames are marked “Z87” or “ANSI Z87” if they’re approved as PPE.

FYI, current standard is ANSI/ISEA Z87.1-2020. Source is ANSI Current Standards for Safety Glasses.

[GamecockOperator]

as i do not wear glasses i dont know the answer to your questions. I have heard that though to my friends that wear glasses when they go to the range that their regular eyeglasses is just fine and they dont need the protection goggoles/glasses. That said, I would think that glasses or the regular plastic goggles/glasses that we use for safety are just as good because they are serving the basic need to have something in between the malfunction and your eye, in an attempt to save the eyes. and i think thats all that range supervisors are really caring about. Not so much the weather or not theyre truly safe, or not. I’ve even shot with sunglasses on outdoors, and the range masters there were fine as it was a form of eyewear to block my eyes from being hurt in the case of an accident. so idk. I dont think anyone really looks that deep at weather or not it is Ansi z87 or not… unless you’re really trying to ensure you have true safety glasses. which in reality i guess we all should look to have them as that but i bet most of us dont.

[BernieLomax]

Had to wear safety glasses alot for different jobs. Z87 was a must. I replace mine when they get scratched up. That probably happens far before any sort of expiration date, but I dont know for sure. Wasnt good about hard hats though and they do expire.

[LBL]

What are the Statistics about Firearms mishaps ?

If I have a load that I feel a little concern about, I wear safety glasses.

If I have a load that I feel a little more concern about, I wear safety glasses and a welding mask.

Normally just for the first round. The extra optics interferes with Aiming.

[TheAirHawk]

Plastics, even Polycarbonate, slowly degrade over time - becoming more brittle and less optically-clear. If silica-glass has any degradation, it’s not going to happen within any of our lifetimes.

[California_Refugee]

Prescription glasses are not good for safety glasses. Being in industries that required PPE and being a supervisor and also a member on safety teams required me to make sure our people were wearing required PPE. Z87 requirements include side protection.

People wearing Prescription glasses had to have “safety Prescription glasses”

If not they needed “side shields” like these.

I had many of those in my desk at the ready. When large amounts of new hires or temps hit the floor I’d keep a pack or two in my pockets to pass out.

Like @BernieLomax mentioned. I went thru basic safety glasses quickly due to scratches so I’ve never seen plastic old enough to decay or anything like that. If they bother anyone, deal with it. You’ll get used to them. In the beginning I hated them. They caused headaches and sinus problems. After I wore them so much I’d drive home and walk in the house and my wife would ask why I’m still wearing safety glasses. I’d be like, oops I didnt even know I still had them on. When walking into a grocery store or any building of house my hands would automatically reach to the top of my head to drop my glasses (that weren’t there) lmao. It just because natural to me.

TO EVERYONE…

Don’t play around with your eyes. Recently @papabearknives took a copper jacket to his elbow and had a doctor dig it out. Imagine that was his eye? I’m not a huge Safety Sally, but your eyes are important. Wear safety glasses or prescription safety glasses or side shields with your prescription glasses.

Imagine never being able to aim properly with one eye. Imagine looking at your kid or wife with one eye. Imagine how dumb you will look with one eye. Imagine missing the next deal PSA Daily Deal because you took too long squinting at the email with one eye and missed out on a newly released MP5.

[papabearknives]

100000000% agree with this message on Saftey glasses!!!

[papabearknives]

For anyone that hadn’t seen it, this could have been much worse!

STAY SAFE!

[sixpic]

This has turned into an interesting discussion. It seems not everyone is in agreement that safety glasses are always necessary or whether specifically safety-rated glasses are necessary. We all have our opinions and experiences to support them.

I know a guy who got a rust chip in his eye and it scratched his cornea. He eventually lost vision in that eye.

One time years ago I was under a car when I lived in the Rust Belt and all sorts of stuff was dropping on me. Fortunately, I had on my safety glasses even though it was warm and the glasses were fogging. At lunch time I went clean up and saw my whole face was dotted with flecks of grease, rust, and salt. My glasses were also pretty well covered. I thought to myself: all of that junk could have been in my eyes. That was the experience that converted me to accepting safety glasses as an occasionally necessary part of life. (FYI, road salt really burns when it gets in your eyes!)

I used those same safety glasses as shooting glasses until I got some fancy tinted ones. Nowadays I wear prescription safety glasses. But here is a pic of my old wire-rimmed, Bausch and Lomb glasses that I got from my Grandfather’s house. They must be at least seventy or eighty years old and are what prompted my original post on whether safety glass degrades over time.

The frames are steel I am pretty sure, and the box seems to be aluminum. Somewhere I have another, similar pair marked “AO” on the glass for American Optical. Those have some decorative engraving, or maybe it’s rolled in, on the rims. In their day, both BL and AO were considered pretty decent quality eye protection and I imagine they were rather expensive for the average middle class worker.

Hang on. Now I see that term “middle class” and am fuming over Comrade Joe suggesting that people who make only 400k annually are middle class. Hey I don’t begrudge people their wealth but I have a hard time accepting that I’m in the same bracket as someone who makes at least eight times as much as I do. So I wonder now about Comrade Joe: how can someone be that stupid and breathe on his own? Ok, concluding digression. Thanks for your patience.

Anyway, given a few near misses of my own and direct hits of others, I will continue to tolerate the inconvenience of officially-designated, protective eyewear. Finding just the right eye protection that works with AR15 might take a bit of time. I am encouraged to stick with my eye protection, however, when I think about possible alternatives. I’ll just offer one parting shot (pardon the half pun) and then try to let go of this topic; I hope none of you ever end up thinking to yourselves, “gosh, I sure wish I’d worn my safety glasses.”

Couldn’t resist one last edit. I posted this at work after hearing someone say that he didn’t need to wear safety glasses while sanding or grinding.

[California_Refugee]

Those are VERY cool. If those could speak, huh? That’s some cool history right there. Being from your family makes it double groovy!

[Rufus]

Safety glasses are much more likely to “scratch” out rather than time out.

[sixpic]

The consensus so far seems to be that I’ll expire before the glasses will.

[ablediver1]

OK Folks, I’m THAT GUY. I worked in Occupational Health & Safety for twenty two (22) years before I retired. I’ve taken grinding slag out of someone’s eye, and he was wearing safety goggles. I’ve seen air-gun nails perforate safety glass lenses. I myself, have had a hot casing caught between the bridge of my glasses and my orbit. Not to mention all kinds of foreign objects people picked up through dust,shavings, fiberglass, etc. Putting it simply, you only have two (2) eyes, which one can you lose? Prescription lenses alone are not adequate protection for range use. If they’re prescription and safety glasses with side shields, that’s adequate protection. If you need bi-focals for close -up, diopters are available. There are lots of options to provide protection. At the cost of a box of ammo, you can get quality, American - made protection from Uvex, Umarex, and 3M. Those antique safety glasses look in good enough condition to put in a display case on a book shelf with a catchy phrase under them. They’ve done their job.

Just my humble$.02

Ablediver out

[LBL]

@ablediver1

OK Folks, I’m THAT GUY. I worked in Occupational Health & Safety for twenty two (22) years before I retired. I’ve taken grinding slag out of someone’s eye, and he was wearing safety goggles. I’ve seen air-gun nails perforate safety glass lenses. I myself, have had a hot casing caught between the bridge of my glasses and my orbit. Not to mention all kinds of foreign objects people picked up through dust,shavings, fiberglass, etc. Putting it simply, you only have two (2) eyes, which one can you lose?

I knew a woman that had a bad outcome from LASIK eye surgery.

She tried to cut out the eye that was giving her pain, and only scratched her cornea with an X-acto knife.

It cost $30K to clean it up - for a half-hour surgery.

One of the main reasons you need to protect your eyes is, the current vintage of Eye “Doctors” are some of the greediest people walking this Earth.

If something goes wrong, you simply can not afford to have it fixed.

One of my favorite “industrial shop accident” stories happened at SLAC in the mid-1970’s.

Some physicist had a 12 x 12 x 3/8 inch piece of steel cut, and came to pick it up.

It had a very sharp burr on it. I think they cut it with a shear.

While he is saying, “is this mine ?” it slides out of his hands, slicing both hands down to the bone in places.

[sixpic]

It cost $30K to clean it up - for a half-hour surgery.

One of the main reasons you need to protect your eyes is, the current vintage of Eye “Doctors” are some of the greediest people walking this Earth.

I had a friend who had cataracts and got the laser surgery after hearing from other people how much better they could see. Well, when you go in for the surgery, you sign a form releasing the surgery center and its employees for any responsibility whatsoever if something goes wrong. That’s a big red flag right there. Problem is, you can’t get the procedure if you don’t sign the form. That is where healthcare has you by the short ones: they know you might be desperate, maybe in a life or death situation, and can use that leverage to weasel out of any responsibility they rightfully should have. Thanks to stupid and crooked lawyers, and a modern world that does not value expertise or quality employees, medical firms I guess had to resort to this dirty tactic.

Here’s the really fun part. My friend had his surgery on one eye and it went okay. Vision improved except for itching eye. The second surgery not so well. They used a different chemical for the local anesthesia and it wasn’t effective but they went ahead with the lens replacement. Itching of the eyes persisted, and watery eyes.

Turns out the synthetic lenses they put in your eyes are latex. This guy had a latex allergy but I don’t think they tested for that, not sure if anyone even asked. I’m sure they asked “do you have any allergies” but who thinks of latex? I think maybe, because of the procedure and all, that it should be routine to test for latex allergy before going ahead.

In this case, the guy continued to have itching and watering eyes until he died several years later. They got his money and got away with it. Could have been worse if the latex allergy had been severe. But the paper he signed basically said: “If something goes wrong, it’s your tough luck; we have your money so kiss off, sucker.”

[ablediver1]

You just cannot make that up. I can’t think which one was my favorite, but two (2) stand out: a school teacher who received multiple sutures for lacerations received from petting a Police K9 during Show & Tell Day, or the guy who wrote “ We’re on the assembly line and I say something about this guy’s wife. Next thing I know, I ‘m on the floor and he’s beating the living crap out of me”

Ablediver out