We were just about to toss out some old goggles that were in the closet and, on a lark, decided to check their UV protection.  Mine were maybe 10+ year old Oakleys (haven’t used in many years) and Darlene’s were her old Smith’s that she had been using up until last month.  Both are fitted with orange “high contrast” lenses.

Well, both appear to be failing to provide UV protection now.  Not good!

Sunglasses and ski goggles can lose their UV protection over time.  So… double-check your old sunglasses and goggles for UV protection!

I tested with a UV flashlight (“black light”) I picked up recently off Amazon when I decided I didn’t want to trust the unknown Chinese manufacturer (“Oho”) of some new camera goggles I bought.  As it turns out, those new goggles and my old Liquid Image camera goggles I’ve been using for many years pass the UV flashlight test fine.  (As do my and Darlene’s sunglasses.)

You can do a quick and dirty test just using a $20 bill and one of these inexpensive UV flashlights.  You can also get a more professional test (with an actual UV blocking measurement) from your local optician.

Here’s a bad result on left (strip is fluorescing due to UV light getting through lens), good result on right – both are orange tint lenses and many years old: