ANSI is the American National Standards Institute. ANSI facilitates and coordinates the United States voluntary standards and conformity assessments system. ANSI is a private, not-for-profit organization. Formed in 1918, and originally established as the American Engineering Standard Committee. The organization is made up of volunteer experts in specific industries that come together to create a set of common guidelines and set industry standards. ANSI oversees the standards that pertain to terminology and definitions, rules about the quality and construction of goods and products, and product testing. ANSI provides guidance, not regulations or enforcement. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) are the regulatory government bodies that have the power to write ANSI standards into law.
In the case of eyeglasses, the (SDO) Standards Developing Organization is a consortium made up of medical, instrumentation technology, and manufacturing experts. This group of experts makes recommendations for industrywide standards in safety and consistency for the consumer. ASC-Z80 recommended standards cover:
• Prescription Ophthalmic Lenses
• Non-prescription sunglasses & fashion eyewear
• Prescription Safety Glasses
• Spectacle frames
• Devices for low vision
• Intraocular lenses, Multifocal Intraocular lenses, Phakic Intraocular lenses, Accommodative Intraocular lenses, Toric Intraocular lenses & Extended Depth of Focus Intraocular lenses
• Ophthalmic Instruments-Tonometers, Focimeters, Slit-Lamp Microscopes
• Laser systems for corneal reshaping
• Contact lenses & contact lens care products
• Corneal topography & tomography systems
• Implantable Glaucoma devices
• Methods for reporting a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected
• Specifications for over-the-counter reading glasses
• Light hazards protection for Ophthalmic instruments & operation microscopes used in ocular surgery
• General-Purpose Clinical Visual Acuity Charts
• Among others and updating continually
The ANSI (ASC-Z80) committee for the Ophthalmic Optics Group consists of experts from these organizations:
• Advanced Medical Technology Association
• American Academy of Ophthalmology
• American Academy of Optometry
• American Glaucoma Society
• American Optometric Association
• American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery
• Contact Lens Institute
• Contact Lens Manufacturers Association
• Cornea Society
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Food and Drug Administration
• Johnson & Johnson Vision
• Medical Device Manufacturers Association
• National Association of Optometrists & Opticians
• Optical Laboratory Association
• Opticians Association of America
• OSHA
• Sunglass Association of America
• The Vision Council
When you see the ANSI certification on products and services you know, ANSI is the measurement for quality and performance that helps to protect the public interest and foster commerce by influencing the design, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and safe use of products and processes worldwide. Voluntary participation shows an organization is committed to high-quality standards in an environment characterized by openness and due process. ANSI-approved standards carry tremendous benefit for example if you have a written eyeglass prescription and an optical lab makes the lenses, the lens measurements should be within a standard + or – range to be compliant. The same with instruments used for diagnosis, calibration of those instruments should be within a range for each instrument. Is the vendor making your eyewear compliant with ANSI?
Sources:
www.ANSI.org
www.opticiannow.com
www.visioncouncil.org
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