The doubts of the Federation of Amateur Astronomers of Quebec (FAAQ) were well-founded. Eclipse glasses sold by Canadian Tire were not compliant, found one of the authors of the ISO 12312-2 standard.
What there is to know
- Glasses sold at Canadian Tire allowed more light to pass through than required by the ISO 12312-2 standard.
- Uncertified glasses can increase the risk of eye injuries that usually occur 12 hours after exposure, says Dr Ralph Chou.
- Some glasses sold at the Maison de l’Astronomie were not certified either.
“I have received a number of samples of this product for testing, and the transmission measurements do not meet the requirements of the standard. They therefore allow more light to pass through than what the ISO standard provides,” he told The Press professor of optometry and vision sciences at the University of Waterloo and one of the authors of the standard, Dr.r Ralph Chou.
“In fact, when you look at the sun through these filters, you find that the image of the sun is brighter than what you would get with standard-compliant filters,” adds the professor.
The glasses sold at Canadian Tire were purple with the words “Solar Eclipse”. On one of the branches, we could read “NASA Approved”.
The labeling of the glasses was not up to standard either. We should have found information there, including the name and address of the manufacturer.
There is also specific language regarding warning messages that must be placed on the product. If you do not have all of these pieces of information, then the product does not meet the labeling requirements of the standard.
The Dr Ralph Chou, one of the authors of the ISO 12312-2 standard
The Federation of Amateur Astronomers of Quebec (FAAQ) had expressed its doubts in recent weeks about the quality of certain glasses sold at Canadian Tire.
For its part, Canadian Tire claims to have examined the supporting documents provided by its suppliers. “The solar eclipse glasses sold in our stores have been independently tested by a third-party laboratory to confirm that they meet the requirements of ISO 12312-2:2015,” said Canadian Tire Director of Communications, Cindy Hoffman .
Possible eye damage?
The professor believes that the glasses sold by Canadian Tire sufficiently protect the eyes if a person briefly looks at the sun through this filter. “But if a person looks at the sun through the filter for an extended period of time, it is possible that they could reach a dangerous level of exposure,” he says.
In cases of eye injury, people may notice a gray area, distortion or intense blurring localized in the center of vision, says the Dr Cabbage. These types of problems usually occur within 12 hours of exposure.
If people didn’t see anything like this, it’s unlikely they would have had any problems.
The Dr Ralph Chou, one of the authors of the ISO 12312-2 standard
The ISO 12312-2 standard was developed to replace a European standard that was put in place after the 1999 solar eclipse in Europe. “Europeans were concerned about the possibility of having products for looking at the sun that did not protect properly,” recalls Dr.r Cabbage. The specialist was part of the technical committee responsible for updating this standard.
Non-compliant glasses at the Maison de l’Astronomie
Certain glasses, sold at the Maison de l’Astronomie in Montreal, are visually identical to those sold at Canadian Tire. Although they have not been tested by his laboratory, Professor Chou specifies that this model has simply “not been approved by any organization”.
Called to react, Richard Sansregret, from the Maison de l’Astronomie, confirmed that certain glasses sold were not certified. “We had a small batch of these. They had a fairly good density, but were not certified because there was not all the information in them. We didn’t really have any problems with that,” he says. He was unable to tell us how many copies were sold.
Mr. Sansregret specifies that in total, seven varieties of glasses, from different distributors, were sold. He claims the company checked each pair of glasses individually using a halogen lamp to confirm they were dark enough.
reference: www.lapresse.ca