What must safety glasses meet to be considered adequate?

• A. FDA approval.
• B. MIL-SPEC standards.
• C. Company safety standards only.
• D. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and company safety standards.

Answer: (D)

Safety glasses are considered adequate when they meet a recognized, objective set of protections. In practice, that means they conform to American National Standards Institute (ANSI) requirements for eye and face protection, such as ANSI Z87.1, which spell out how well the lenses must resist impact, how well the frame fits, optical clarity, coverage, and other essential performance traits. At the same time, many workplaces require additional, site-specific criteria captured in company safety standards to address particular hazards or procedures there.

Other options aren’t the baseline for PPE: FDA approval relates to medical products, not protective eyewear; MIL-SPEC standards are design benchmarks for military hardware and aren’t the general standard for everyday workplace PPE; relying on company standards alone might omit the universally recognized performance test that ANSI provides.

So the adequate safety glasses are those that meet both ANSI standards and the company’s safety standards.