Eye protection guide

What side shields do on everyday glasses

Everyday glasses guard the front of your eyes and leave the sides open. Our side shields fill that opening. They are clear, flexible TPU, they slide onto the temple arm of the frame with no tools, and each pair is marked R and L so the curve faces the right way. The Slip-On Side Shields for Glasses fit temple arms less than 12 mm wide and come in packs from 2 to 60 pairs. A small-frame pack of the same shields fits arms less than 10 mm wide.

Measure the arm of your frame where it leaves the hinge before you choose. Arms up to 12 mm wide take the standard shields, and the thin arms under 10 mm, often metal, take the slim ones. Then wear them where the wind does the damage: on a bike, on a beach, in the garden on a gusty afternoon. NIOSH notes that most eye injuries at work come from small particles, such as dust, metal slivers and wood chips, striking or scraping the eye, and that is the kind of thing a side shield keeps from coming in sideways.

Fit them in front of a mirror. Check the R and L marks, slide each shield onto its own arm until it meets the back of the frame, and look straight ahead: no daylight should show between the shield and the rim of the lens. Then turn your eyes to each side. NIOSH asks that eyewear be fitted for coverage, comfort and peripheral vision, and a shield that blocks the corner of your view needs to sit further back on the arm.

What OSHA counts as eye protection

At work the rule is OSHA's eye and face standard, 29 CFR 1910.133. Where objects can fly, the employer has to provide eye protection with side protection. Clip-on or slide-on side shields are acceptable only if they meet the requirements of that section. A worker who wears prescription lenses needs protection that either builds the prescription into its design or fits over the glasses without moving them. The devices must follow ANSI Z87.1, or be shown to protect as well, and carry the maker's marking.

OSHA spelled out the side shield question in a January 2007 letter. Detachable side shields that meet the standard are allowed on safety glasses, an employer may still require permanent ones, and any change made to safety glasses has to keep them within the Z87.1 specification. OSHA's shipyard eTool makes the same point for glasses wearers: prescription safety glasses, or else a cover lens or goggles.

Put together, a MELASA side shield on everyday glasses is an extra side cover. It does not turn ordinary frames into safety eyewear, and on a job where eye protection is required it is not the answer.

At work, OSHA 1910.133 decides what you wear. On a windy ride or a dusty job at home the choice is yours, and our advice is shields for the wind and goggles for the chips.

Goggles over your glasses

Our Anti-Fog Safety Goggles are built to go over glasses. The lens is polycarbonate, the wrap-around frame is soft PVC that bends to the face, an elastic strap adjusts to your head, and four vents let air through. We sell these goggles as meeting ANSI Z87.1, so look for the Z87 mark on the frame before you rely on them for a job, because the marking is what the standard and OSHA go by.

Fit them the way 1910.133 describes: over your glasses without moving them. Put your glasses on first, then the goggles, and tighten the strap until the seal touches your face all the way round. If your glasses are pushed down your nose or pressed against your cheeks, loosen the strap or try a slimmer frame underneath.

Reading the Z87 mark

ANSI/ISEA Z87.1 is the standard behind the mark. Its 2025 edition sets the performance, testing and marking requirements for eye and face protection at work and at school, and the update makes the markings clearer about which hazard a product covers. The industry association that publishes it, ISEA, also stresses that no single product suits every situation.

ISEA puts the stakes in two numbers: roughly 20,000 US workers a year get eye injuries that need treatment, and it says up to 90 percent of them could be avoided with the right protective equipment. The mark is how you tell the right equipment from a pair that only looks the part.

Glasses under a cap or a liner

In winter your glasses share space with a hat, and a tight cap presses the arms against your head. Several of our caps have slots that let the arms pass through the fabric instead of under it: the Winter Helmet Liner with Glasses Holes, the Ear Warmer Helmet Liner with Glasses Holes, whose slots are reflective, and the 2-in-1 Balaclava Helmet Liner. Side shields stay on the arms through the slot. A slot changes the comfort, not the rule: on a job that calls for eye protection, the eyewear under the cap still has to meet 1910.133.

Anti-fog is a choice

Fog is the main reason people take goggles off, and a goggle that sits on your forehead protects nothing. The Z87.1 standard keeps anti-fog as an optional performance rating, not a requirement. Our goggles carry an anti-fog coating, and the four vents help air move behind the lens. On cold days a balaclava with a mesh panel over the mouth, such as our Thermal Fleece Balaclava, lets your breath out the front rather than up into the lens.

The side shields and the goggles are part of the MELASA catalog, all on the side shields and goggles shelf.