PPE is essential for any workplace, and as an employer, it is your job to keep your employees safe, and using PPE helps to do so. PPE stands for Personal Protective Equipment, which is a list of many different things that are personalised to your workplace. The most common forms of PPE for an everyday tradie are things like hard hats and hi-vis apparel. Whereas PPE for a chef could be gloves and leather non-slip shoes. The specific PPE change between workplaces, but have the same purpose, to keep the workers safe.

Some common hazards that PPE protects workers from are:

1) Head hazards- A variety of helmets, hard hats, and bump caps are suitable PPE to avoid head hazards.

2) Eyes hazards- PPE ranges with safety eyeglasses, goggles, face shields, and visors.

3) Breathing hazards- Respiratory systems/apparatus, air-fed helmets are some PPE options for breathing hazards.

4) Body hazards- Typical coveralls, boiler suits, and specifically designed protective clothing can be chosen as effective PPE.

5) Feet and legs hazards- Preventive action can be taken by using safety boots/shoes, and penetration-resistant midsole, gaiters, leggings, spats, etc.

6) Hands and arms hazards- Potential PPE includes hand gloves, gauntlets, mitts, wrist cuffs, armlets, etc.

In a company, a workplace assessment is absolutely a necessity to find out the potential hazards and select the PPE according to the specific hazards. Therefore, tradies should be taught information about all PPE and what they’re used for, and how they’re used within the workplace.

Tradies should also be taught how to tell if the equipment is faulty, or needs replacing. All training must be documented by the corresponding Healthy and Safety Department within the company.

As the PPE list gets longer and longer as time goes on, with new hazards coming along with new technologies and machinery in the workplace. Safety glasses are a PPE that will always stay as one of the most common forms and continue to keep tradies safe.

But what exactly are safety glasses? Can any pair of sunnies be used as safety glasses? Can you get prescribed safety glasses? All these questions and more will be answered. But first, where did safety glasses come from?

Safety glasses, or ‘eye protectors’ was first invented in 1880 by P. Johnson. These were first used by firemen to reduce the intensity of bright lights, and they’re made from two layers of semi-opaque cloth. Then in 1903, a French scientist, Edouard Benedictus accidentally knocked a glass flask off the shelf as he was climbing a ladder in his lab.

To his surprise, he saw the pieces of the broken flask still connected together. Benedictus then inspected the accident and found that the flask had a solution of a type of liquid plastic, and although it was evaporated, there was a thin coat within the flask’s interior. After a few months, Benedictus heard about a car accident and decided to put the same solution on car windshields. Then after a few years, safety glasses were created.

Now safety glasses are predominantly used in the construction industry, but they’re also important to factory workers, mechanics, and welders. As the years go by, different types of safety glasses are being made with different materials and designs, but the purpose will always stay the same. Brands such as Natty, Unit, UVEX, and Pro Choice have kept up with new innovative designs and looks for safety glasses to be worn both inside and outside the workplace.

Safety glasses frames are made of nylon and they usually have side shields to protect flying materials entering the eyes from the sides. Since nothing can replace an eye, it is very important to protect the eyes by using safety glasses at work where there are potential threats to the eyes.

There are many different kinds of safety glasses, for example, the safety goggles used by a person carrying out a welding operation will be dark in color to absorb the blinding flash of the welding flame while safety glasses used by a worker carrying out a wood cutting operation will be transparent and covering the eye from all sides, so as to protect the eye from the wood dust.

Safety glasses can be used by anyone in the workplace. Depending on the requirement of the user, safety glasses can have varied lenses such as clear, bifocal, anti-fog, tinted, indoor/outdoor lens, polarized, shooting, men’s or women's, low light eyewear, filtered, and changeable. All safety glasses shield the eyes from hazards. Such hazards may arise from:

• Flying solid debris
• Liquid chemical splashes
• The impact of moving machinery
• Heat, sparks, and intense lights during welding and metal cutting, etc.

Our top picks

Natty Kenneth Polarised Safety Glasses