When looking at safety glasses you may have noticed that they say Z87 on them and wondered what exactly that meant. This is an indication that the glasses are made to the specifications required by the ANSI Z87 set of standards. ANSI is the American National Standards Institute, which is a non-profit organization that is well-known for helping to create standards that are followed by corporations around the world.
Understanding the Z87 Standard
The ANSI Z87 set of standards is focused specifically on eye and face protection devices used for personal, occupational, or educational reasons. Eye protection is among the most important items in this section since the human eye is one of the most fragile areas.
The standards written by ANSI can provide people with confidence that the glasses will give sufficient protection from impact, non-ionizing radiation, splashes from potentially harmful liquids, and more. These standards have been updated in 2010 and 2015 to ensure they continue to reflect the best practices when it comes to safety glasses and eye protection.
Requirements for Z87
In order for a pair of safety glasses to meet the ANSI Z87 standards they must complete an official certification showing that they provide the necessary level of protection in multiple areas. This includes protection from blunt impact, dust, dust particles, splashes, droplets, and radiation. In each of these areas an organization that tests the glasses will run them through a series of activities to ensure they pass.
There are a number of different levels of safety glasses on the market. Choosing the right ones for a given situation can be difficult. The one thing that all safety glasses must do, however, is pass the ANSI set of standards to ensure they are able to provide the needed protection. From there, higher standards can be used for glasses that may experience high impact or other hazards.
