ANSI Requirements for Safety Glasses

Did you know ANSI (American National Standard Institute) revised safety glasses standard Z87 in 2003? The revisions are instated to improve safety guidelines for safety glasses in an effort to reduce the amount of work related eye injuries. Each component of safety glasses (sideshields, lenses, and frame) has standards that must be followed.

Side Shield Requirements

* Must be tested for high velocity compliance on basic or high impact frame test platforms

* Must be impacted at three specified points at 150 fps (feet per second)

* Attachment to “basic” frames will not upgrade the frame to “high impact” status.  NOTE: They do provide additional lateral high impact protection.

* Must be marked with the manufacturer’s and Z87 logo indicating compliance

**NOTE: OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) states that side protection does not need to be permanent indicating that detachable sideshields are permissible.

Lens Requirements

High Impact Lenses

* Must not be less than 2mm thick in diameter

* Must be marked “Z87+”

Basic Impact Lenses

* Must not be less than 3mm thick in diameter

* Must be marked “Z87″

* Glass lenses are considered low or basic impact resistant

* Resin lenses are considered low or basic impact resistant

**NOTE: Dress or street wear frames regardless of frame or thickness do not meet current or previous ANSI Z87 standards and are not to be worn in the work place without approved protection worn over them.

Frame Requirements

* Must display a permanent and legible mark or logo identifying the manufacturer

* Safety glasses frames intended to hold prescription lenses must be marked “Z87-2″

* Basic impact frames must be marked “Z87″ on either the frame or temple

* High impact frames must be marked “Z87+ on either the frame or temple

Keep in mind that the ANSI standards are enforced to prevent accidents and keep you and your coworkers safe. These standards can prevent you from being one of the more than 2,000 workers per day who suffer from eye injuries on the job. Nobody needs or wants to lose money from being out of work for an injury. Therefore, take the time to get yourself a pair of safety glasses, and protect your sight for many years to come.

Explore posts in the same categories: Safety Glasses Blog

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3 Comments on “ANSI Requirements for Safety Glasses”


  1. that’s quality safety glasses for workers. Also you have variety of styles and colors.That’s good.

  2. yousaf ali Says:

    i visited your site ,very interesting but did not mention the impact.so i want to know what is the impact resistance of safety glasses,shoes and helmet being used in construction industries.how many kgs can they tolerate.
    hope you will answer my questions as soon as possible.

    thanks and best regards.

  3. MIKE Says:

    do the word “ANSI”,then z87 have to be on the safety glasses to meet the safety guidelines.or just the z87 mark alone.

    thanks mike


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