Your eyes are vulnerable and easily damaged. OSHA requires employers to supply face and eye protection to workers. However, it’s ultimately up to the employee to choose to wear protective eye equipment.

An insane but apparently common misconception is that contact lenses offer adequate eye protection. This idea could not be more wrong. Contact lenses offer no protection from common workplace hazards and many times can actually make things worse.

For example, a hot spark could land on your contact lens and melt it onto your eyeball.

If you wear contacts, you need to wear safety glasses for additional eye protection, too. If you wear glasses you need to either have prescription safety glasses that meet ANSI standards or wear over-sized safety glasses over your regular glasses. If you wear over-sized safety glasses over your regular glasses they need to fit right so you can still see.

Safety Skills can help you learn about safety requirements with our online safety training programs.