With today’s medical science and technology, physicians and scientists can do remarkable things that were unknown only a decade ago; organ transplants, cloning, microsurgery, etc. But still, we have only one pair of eyes. Many of us enjoy activities or occupations that can cause serious injury and even blindness if we treat our eyes carelessly. This is where a good set of goggles can save our eyes! For example, when you enroll in a welding school, the first thing you’ll learn is that safety goggles are essential to protect your eyes from sparks and gasses. Military and law enforcement personnel learn the importance of night vision goggles to conduct reconnaissance missions. In fact, sunglasses-type goggles are currently in use by the US armed forces in Iraq to protect their eyes from both blowing sand and the glare of desert sands.

Sports enthusiasts of all kinds know the importance of a well-made set of goggles from manufacturers like Smith, Scott and Oakley. If you ride motorcycles, for example, goggles protect your eyes from debris and insects that, at high speeds, become projectiles that can cause permanent eye damage. Though many cyclists prefer the feeling of freedom of the open road, there is no doubt that goggles and helmets save lives!

Frequent swimmers, especially professional athletes, use water-resistant goggles to prevent damage to their eyes from chlorine in swimming pools and ocean salt water. Long-distance swimmers who swim the length of the Great Lakes or the English Channel regard goggles as a life-saving necessity!

Winter sports enthusiasts know just how essential goggles are to protect their eyes and increase their chances of obtaining championship status among their peers. Ski and snowboard goggles protect these athletes’ eyes from both blowing, freezing ice and snow as well as reducing glare from the stark white snow. The sports of extreme downhill skiing or snowboarding are extremely dangerous without goggles as essential eye protection.

Are you a marksman who enjoys competition shooting or a hunter of large game? You’ll need to add a quality set of goggles to not only keep your vision clear for an accurate aim, but also to protect your eyes from stray high-velocity bullet casings that can cause permanent blindness. Bullet casings are very hot from the gunpowder that fires the ammunition round; a large, hot casing can cause irreparable damage to the cornea and the optic nerve.

Paintball competitions have become enormously popular in the past few years; it’s fun, exciting, and unfortunately, potentially extremely dangerous without protective eyewear. Military and law enforcement personnel have long used paintball games to determine the accuracy of their abilities to subdue an enemy with one shot. Without the protection of snug-fitting goggles, a paintball to the eye, traveling at about 40 mph, can literally pulverize a human eye in seconds.

It’s possible to enjoy the sport and occupation that suits your interest without taking unnecessary risks to your ocular health. Goggles, depending upon their intended use, are relatively inexpensive compared to your welding torch or snowboard. Why assume the risk of a serious injury that is entirely preventable?

The earliest use of snow goggles starts with the Inuit people who lived in the coastal regions of what are now Siberia, Greenland, and Alaska. Archeologists have uncovered prehistoric sites thousands of years old with snow goggles in them. The Inuit version of the snow goggle was a carved piece of bone, shell or driftwood, with horizontal slits for eye holes about an inch and half wide. The goggles were held in place by sinew, and were used to cut down on sun’s glare and ultraviolet rays, thus preventing snow blindness (snow blindness is in effect a sunburn in your eyes, and is an painful as it sounds. In extreme cases it can cause blindness).

Thousands of years later, one of the primary functions of ski goggles remains the same: protection from ultraviolet rays of the sun. All but the most inexpensive ski goggles provide ultraviolet protection; do not purchase a pair that does not offer this most basic function. According to the American National Standards Institute, look for a lens that blocks the two components of UV radiation — UVB and UVA — by 99 percent and 95 percent, respectively. In addition to protection of your eyes from UV rays, goggles also serve as a physical barrier keeping snow, wind, ice, rocks and flying debris from your eyes. Keep the following tips in mind as you shop for ski goggles:

Be sure to choose a pair of ski or snowboard goggles that have good peripheral vision- when traveling at a high rate of speed it’s important to be able to identify hazards quickly. Those hazards can be natural- such as uneven terrain, rocks or trees, or even your fellow snow boarding or skiing enthusiasts.

Fit- You are going to be on the slopes for hours at a time, make sure to try on several pairs of snowboard goggles to get a comfortable fit. If you wear a helmet, be sure to try the goggles with it before you hit slopes — there’s nothing worse than constantly having to adjust your equipment, or worse yet discovering you can’t wear those expensive snowboarding goggles at all.

Anti-Fog – Look for a ski goggle with anti-fogging technology built in. There are several approaches- a double layer lens, chemical treatments of the lens during manufacturing, and finally as a last resort, you can pick up an anti-fogging spray or wipe at the store.

Match your lens color to the conditions you’ll be skiing or snowboarding in. In low light or overcast conditions, yellow or rose snowboard goggles will provide better contrast, and you’ll be able to see more. If you’re going to be out on the slopes at night, wear clear goggles. Finally, with bright conditions, use a darker tint (purple, green, etc.) to reduce eye strain. Some newer ski goggles have interchangeable lenses, which allow you to select the correct lens color for the current conditions. Finally, Uvex has come up with an interesting approach to having the correct lens at hand. Using a battery powered liquid crystal technology you can switch from high contrast (for flat light) to a darker lens for bright conditions by simply pressing a button.

Ski goggles have come a long way in technology, and comfort, but their basic purpose- protecting your irreplaceable vision, remains the same.

You have to deal with two types of conditions when you ski, and each requires a different lens color in your goggles. When it’s snowy and cloudy, yellow goggle lenses perform best, allowing you to see a better contrast. This works great early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The second condition, when the sun comes up, requires a dark or purple lens, to reduce glare and make looking down the slopes comfortable. Smith I/O, new for this season offers two interchangeable lenses, so one pair of goggles fits both conditions. No more lugging two sets of goggles, or just dealing with the discomfort. Another novel idea is Uvex Magic- they use a battery and the VALiD lens technology allows user to instantly change lens tint.

I don’t know about you, but I lose stuff. A lot. There’s some new technology that might help me. Yasuo Kuniyoshi has invented a kind of nose mounted set of goggles that record your day. The clever part is the glasses come with a computer algorithm which can recognize objects. What makes it more interesting is it can then take the recognized object, and search through the video to find the last time you saw said object. Then it plays you the video. So if you lost your keys, how useful would it be to see you had them in your hand on the couch and then the doorbell rang, so you set them on the table? They’re still testing the technology, but I like the idea. I’m not sure about wearing a camera all day, but I would love to put an end to losing things. Here the original article.

Onions are good for you. They have vitamins B, C, and G. They help stop bacterial growth and they just taste good when cooked, taking on the flavor of whatever they’re cooked in. But the chef will shed tears in preparation, due to onion vapors. When you chop that onion, it releases syn-propanethial-S-oxide, which makes your eyes water. If you’d like the details, Scientific American has an article here. Anyway, there’s a way to outsmart the wily onion. Onion Goggles, equipped with a foam seal around your eyes, prevent you from getting all weepy at meal time. They’re even no fog, so you can prepare that masterpiece in comfort.

Order them here.

All About Eye Safety has a great article on the importance of safety goggles, including the dramatic story of a siding installer who saved his vision, and possibly his life with a pair of goggles. Safety goggles provide a cheap and easy way to protect your eyes. Wearing them over the years has saved me from metal shavings, a piece of a hammer, rocks and countless other bit of debris that come from doing construction work. OSHA has developed a set of standards for eye and face protection, that protect workers, as well as employers from a variety of hazards, including flying debris and blinding light.

General requirements

1910.133(a)(1)

The employer shall ensure that each affected employee uses appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to eye or face hazards from flying particles, molten metal, liquid chemicals, acids or caustic liquids, chemical gases or vapors, or potentially injurious light radiation.

1910.133(a)(2)

The employer shall ensure that each affected employee uses eye protection that provides side protection when there is a hazard from flying objects. Detachable side protectors (e.g. clip-on or slide-on side shields) meeting the pertinent requirements of this section are acceptable.

1910.133(a)(3)

The employer shall ensure that each affected employee who wears prescription lenses while engaged in operations that involve eye hazards wears eye protection that incorporates the prescription in its design, or wears eye protection that can be worn over the prescription lenses without disturbing the proper position of the prescription lenses or the protective lenses. You can read the entire standard here.

You only have one set of eyes, protect them! See the latest deals on safety goggles.

Danny Dumas at Wired’s Gadget Lab has a review up on Smith Optics IO goggles. I can’t decide if they’re terminator sheik or just odd looking. You make the call. Take a look at our Smith Optics deals, you’ll be happy you did.

The Army Air Corps had it right- these babies even protected against fire- what a great set of goggles!