I have always used eye protection when working. Recently I purchased a new angle grinder and thought I'd better step up my protection. I bought a face shield. The shield seems a little flimsy but it has the correct certification stamped on it ????87, I don't recall exactly. Is this suppose to provide the same eye protection as a pair of saftey goggles/lenses? And I suppose to use the face shield alone or with a pair of goggle/lenses? I know if the angle grinder wheel should come apart I'd be happy to have the shield and a pair of googles but I'm wondering what the standary of practice is and what most people wear.
I worked in a lab and had to use eye protection. I need prescription lenses and the company furnished us with prescription safety glasses. When there was danger of something going around the glasses, I'd wear side shields on the safety glasses or goggles over the safety glasses or a full face shield.
For you face shield should be good but I'd also be wearing glasses under it.
Where I worked the glasses were furnished also. They were specified to be made so the side shields could not be removed. Atleast without drilling out the rivits. Other eye and safety equipment was specified by most of the jobs.
One of the funniest rules was that they had the masks that goes your mouth availiable. We often worked in some areas that had a lot of dust,but the rules were we did not have to use the mask in some of the areas. We could use them if we signed a waver that while they are not needed we were just doing it on our own. However for anyone wearing a mask, you could not have a mushtash or beard because it would not seal right..
Facial hair could be a problem but where I worked they would fit test you if you worked in an area where masks were required and I had a friend with a beard that passed.
I've been retired 20 years but still have several pairs of safety glasses which I'll wear when there could be eye hazards. Also still have a few pairs of old safety shoes. It was a good deal at work where you could get new glasses with a new prescription and 2 pairs of safety shoes a year.
Rule of thumb on a dust mask is to wear one if there is a haze in the work area. I have a box of those disposable dust masks that I sometimes use.
The hair could interfear with the seal, but the funny part of the ruling is that even in the areas it was not required, but you could not put one for extra protection in those areas if you had hair on your face.
Where I worked we could get a new pair of perscription glasses whenever we got a new perscription or if the old ones were dammaged. Could get plastic glasses any time we wanted them. Ear plugs by the box, safety shoes once a year from a truck that came around several times a year.
Becaue of lower back pain, I need an MRI. There are two chains of imaging clinics here and when I told one that I had spent about 3 hours of the last 30 years grinding, they said, "Don't worry about it. The restrictions** are for people who do it for work, day in and day out."
For unrelated reasons I had to call the second chain and t he second one said, "Any grinding presents a risk. You need to have an orbital X-ray, to check for metal in my eyes, before we can do the MRI. And you need a prescription from your doctor before we can give the orbital xray. We won't do it otherwise."
So now I'm trying to decide if there is any risk in my backbround. I used goggles most of the time, but not every time I repaired a screwdriver. Because a bench grinder blows the stone and metal particles down. Below my hands. The housing keeps stuff from blowing up at my eyes.
Still I've gotten wood in my eyes so maybe I've gotten metal too.
Told this story to my 75-year old friend, who used to own a small factory, and his father before him, and he remembered 50 years ago getting some metal in his eye(maybe from something another employee was doing) and having to go to the Wilmer Eye Clinic, which is still here and well-known, and they had some special machine to take the filing out of his eye.
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