Properly Fitting (and Looking!) Protective Eyewear

Safety First Wear Eye Protection signNearly 2,000 American workers each year suffer avoidable workplace eye injuries requiring medical treatment.1 Despite the elevated risk of eye injury in some industries, many workers skip the precautions that could protect their eyes. In fact, nearly 3 of 5 workers that experience eye injury are wearing either the wrong kind of eye protection or no protection at all at the time of the accident.2

The Prevent Blindness Organization notes that 90% of all workplace eye injuries can be avoided by using proper safety eyewear. In their 10 step safety program3 to help prevent eye injuries in the workplace, step 5 states “workers need protective eyewear that fits well and is comfortable. Have eyewear fitted by an eye care professional or someone trained to do this.”

In the February 2014 issue of Occupational Health & Safety, David Iannelli writes that with the increasingly diverse U.S. workforce, “significant variances in facial structure among men and women across various ethnicities, safety eyewear is one of the hardest types of PPE to fit- and few safety managers are trained in fitting it properly.” Ill-fitting eyewear that gaps, slips or fogs contributes to worker distraction, loss of productivity, and sometimes the removal of the eyewear during the task.

Employers should ensure that every worker has the properly fitting eyewear via personal fit testing. Purchase eyewear eyewearwith adjustable features. Look for new designs that offer:

  • interchangeable temples
  • headbands
  • flexible/fingered nose pieces
  • vents
  • cushioning around temples and ears
  • lack of gaps

woman wearing safety glassesWomen’s heads are often smaller and narrower, and may require styles in “slim” or “small” sizes.

For workers who are in extreme temperatures or humid environments, purchase eyewear with:

  • built-in ventilation to combat condensation
  • anti-fog coatings

It’s also important to consider style: a Liberty Mutual Research Institute study4 found that workers who do not like the style of their eyewear and are not required to use PPE are more likely to remove it, even in the presence of hazards. When selecting their own eyewear, they will choose style over safety or fit. Ianelli suggests employers purchase eyewear with a modern, sporty look, or sophisticated metal frames.

As the study concluded, ”the goal is to find safety eyewear that workers are willing to wear even when a safety manager isn’t looking.”

1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010). ”Eye Safety.” Retrieved September 30, 2010.

2PPE Compliance in the Workplace: A Continuing Concern, Donna McPherson, Kimberly-Clark Professional at the National Safety Council (NSC) Congress in 2007.

3Ten ways to prevent eye injuries at work, Prevent Blindness, 2013.

4Protective Eyewear in the Workplace: Examining Barriers to Use, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, 12(3).

March 2014


UI HealthWorks is a member of the WORKSAFE IOWA Occupational Medicine Associate Network, the only university-affiliated network of occupational health providers.

WORKSAFE IOWA is an outreach program of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health in the College of Public Health at The University of Iowa.