People have become much more concerned about the harmful effects caused by excessive exposure to sunlight. It is essential, therefore, that sunglasses provide adequate protection from harmful UV light. Also of importance is when sunglasses are to be worn when motoring or any other road use, the lens must allow sufficient visible light to pass and not adversely affect the recognition of traffic signals.

The safety of products such as sunglasses is controlled by the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations. These Regulations provide a legal framework to ensure that a producer or distributor supplies a safe product.

The BS EN 1836, Personal eye protection - Sunglasses and sunglare filters for general use, documents the procedures to be used for testing and the standards to be achieved.

The tests methods documented in BS EN 1836 for Luminous Transmittance and Recognition of traffic signals are the same methods documented in BS 4110 which is a specification for visors for vehicle users (motorcycle visors).

Listed below is a selection of tests, relating to the safety of sunglasses, that can be carried out by the Leicestershire Scientific Services