CSA Z94.3 vs ANSI Z87.1: Canadian and U.S. Eye Protection Standards Compared

CSA Z94.3 vs ANSI Z87.1: the short answer

Short answer: CSA Z94.3 is the Canadian standard for eye and face protectors; ANSI/ISEA Z87.1 is the American one. They are not interchangeable by default. Canadian occupational health and safety is regulated province by province, and provincial regulations point at CSA Z94.3 — Quebec's CNESST does not accept ANSI-only eyewear, while WorkSafeBC has accepted ANSI Z87.1-2010 as equivalent. If you buy for crews on both sides of the border, buy dual-marked eyewear.

Why this matters.
Buying eye protection for a Canadian site off an American spec sheet is one of the easiest compliance mistakes to make, because the eyewear is usually good — it just is not marked to the standard the inspector is reading. A Z87+ stamp with no CSA mark can be rejected in Quebec even though the lens would pass the Canadian impact test. The fix costs nothing at the purchase-order stage and is expensive after a citation.

Part 1 — What CSA Z94.3 actually is

CSA Z94.3, Eye and face protectors, is the National Standard of Canada covering eye and face protection used in occupational and educational settings. It sets the performance, testing, and marking requirements for spectacles, goggles, welding helmets, hand shields, hoods, and face shields used against flying objects and particles, splashing liquids, molten metal, and ultraviolet, visible, and infrared radiation.

The current edition is CSA Z94.3:20, the ninth edition, published in 2020 and reaffirmed in 2025 — you will see it written CSA Z94.3:20 (R2025). It supersedes the 2015, 2007, 2002, 1999, 1992, 1988, 1982, and 1969 editions. A reaffirmation means the committee reviewed the standard and confirmed it without technical change; it does not mean a new edition was issued.

Z94.3 and Z94.3.1 are two different documents

This trips people up constantly. CSA Z94.3 is the product standard — what the protector must do to be certified. CSA Z94.3.1 is the companion selection, use, and care guideline — how an employer decides which class of protector a given task needs. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) publishes its hazard-selection guidance from the Z94.3.1 line. If someone hands you a "CSA selection table," it almost certainly came from Z94.3.1, not Z94.3.

Part 2 — The CSA class system (and why it looks nothing like ANSI's)

This is the single biggest structural difference between the two standards, and it is where most cross-border confusion starts.

ANSI Z87.1 describes protection with optional marking codes bolted onto a device. A pair of goggles carries Z87+ for high impact, then D3 if it passed the splash test, D4 for dust, D5 for fine dust, W for a welding shade, U for a UV scale number, and so on. The device type and the hazard ratings are separate axes.

CSA Z94.3 describes protection primarily through the class of the device itself. The class number tells you the device type and the sub-letter tells you the configuration. Protection against dust or splash is expressed by choosing the right class — an indirect-vented goggle — rather than by a separate optional test code stamped on the lens. CSA's mandatory performance requirements centre on impact resistance and ignition resistance; it does not carry ANSI's separate optional dust and splash test-marking codes.

Class structure as published in CCOHS's eye and face protector selection guidance. CSA Z94.3 organises protectors into seven classes in total; the complete sub-letter breakdown, including the configurations within Classes 2, 5, and 6 and the seventh class, is defined in the purchased standard. We have not reproduced rows we cannot verify against the standard text — buy the standard from CSA Group if you need the authoritative table for a written program.

Face shields are secondary protection in both countries

One rule survives the border unchanged: a face shield is a secondary protector. Under both CSA Z94.3 and ANSI Z87.1 it is worn over primary eye protection, never instead of it. Our safety glasses vs face shields comparison covers where the line falls, and the face shields range is stocked accordingly.

Part 3 — How the impact tests differ

Both standards drive a projectile at a lens and look for failure, but the projectiles and thresholds are not the same, which is why "it passed ANSI so it must pass CSA" is not a safe inference.

The CSA Z94.3 high-impact test fires a 6 mm steel ball weighing approximately 0.88 g at about 50.5 m/s at the lens. The protector fails if the lens breaks, chips, shatters, or cracks. ANSI Z87.1's high-velocity test uses a 1/4-inch steel ball at 150 ft/sec for the Z87+ designation, and a separate drop-ball test (a 1-inch steel ball from 50 inches) for the basic Z87 designation. CSA also imposes an ignition resistance requirement that has no direct ANSI Z87.1 counterpart.

The practical read: the two regimes are comparably demanding but not identical, and neither certification body accepts the other's test report as a substitute for its own certification. That is a paperwork fact, not a performance judgement.

Part 4 — Is ANSI Z87.1 eyewear accepted in Canada?

The honest answer is it depends on the province, and anyone who gives you a flat yes or no is oversimplifying.

Canada has no single federal workplace eye-protection rule for most employers. Occupational health and safety is administered by fourteen jurisdictions — ten provinces, three territories, and the federal jurisdiction for federally regulated industries. Each writes its own regulation, and those regulations are what reference CSA Z94.3.

Quebec — CSA marking required

Quebec's Regulation respecting occupational health and safety governs eye protection and references CSA Z94.3. Eyewear certified only to ANSI Z87.1 is not treated as compliant by the CNESST unless the product also carries the CSA marking. If you supply crews in Quebec, this is the constraint that decides your purchase order.

British Columbia — ANSI Z87.1-2010 accepted as equivalent

WorkSafeBC's engineering department determined that the 2010 edition of ANSI Z87.1 provides an equivalent or better level of protection than the CSA standard, for both prescription and non-prescription eye protection, provided the other requirements of the regulation are met. That is a specific provincial determination — it does not generalise to the rest of the country.

Everywhere else — read your own jurisdiction

Between those two poles sit twelve other jurisdictions with their own wording. Some name CSA Z94.3 outright, some accept "an approved standard," and the edition year referenced varies. Before standardising a purchase across a national crew, read the regulation for each jurisdiction you actually operate in rather than assuming the strictest or the loosest applies everywhere.

Part 5 — Why dual-marked eyewear is the procurement answer

If your crews cross the border, or you supply sites in several provinces, the low-effort correct answer is to buy eyewear certified to both standards. A dual-marked protector complies with the Canadian and the American requirement simultaneously, and it removes the need to maintain two inventories and two sets of documentation.

What to look for on the product itself:

• The CSA side: the CSA logo or the CSA Z94.3 designation, the manufacturer's mark, and the applicable application codes.
• The ANSI side: Z87 or Z87+ on both the frame and the lens, the manufacturer's mark, and any applicable D, W, U, L, or R codes. Our ANSI Z87.1 standard guide decodes the full marking set, including the Z87-2 prescription marking.

Marking beats marketing. A listing that says "CSA compliant" or "meets CSA standards" in the description, with no CSA mark on the frame, is not evidence of certification. The mark is on the product or it is not certified. This is the same discipline we apply to the safety glasses and safety goggles we review.

Part 6 — Worked example: specifying eyewear for a crew working in Ontario and Michigan

A contractor runs the same crew on jobs in southwestern Ontario and across the border in Michigan. Grinding and cutting on both sites; occasional solvent handling. Here is how the specification is built:

1. Establish the hazards first, not the standard. High-velocity particles from grinding, plus a liquid splash exposure during solvent handling. Two different hazards, and they will need two different protectors — this is what our safety glasses vs goggles comparison walks through.
2. Set the impact requirement. Grinding is a high-velocity impact task. On the American side that means Z87+ on frame and lens; on the Canadian side it means a Class 1 spectacle certified to CSA Z94.3. A dual-marked Z87+ / CSA Z94.3 spectacle satisfies both at once.
3. Set the splash requirement separately. A spectacle does not seal to the face and is not splash protection in either country. Solvent handling needs an indirect-vented goggle — CSA Class 2 on the Canadian side, an ANSI D3-marked goggle on the American side. Our direct vent vs indirect vent goggles guide covers why the vent design is the deciding spec.
4. Check the prescription-wearers separately. Workers who wear prescription glasses need either a Z87-2 marked prescription protector or an over-the-glasses design — see OTG vs prescription safety glasses. Ordinary prescription glasses are not eye protection in either jurisdiction.
5. Verify the marking on arrival, not on the invoice. Inspect the frames and lenses as delivered for both marks. Substitutions happen between quote and delivery, and the mark is the only thing an inspector reads. Our how to choose safety glasses reference covers the receiving check.

The result is a two-item specification — a dual-marked high-impact spectacle plus a dual-marked indirect-vented goggle — that is defensible to an inspector in either country. Compare current options in the best safety glasses 2026 and best safety goggles 2026 roundups.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading on this site

• ANSI Z87.1 standard guide — the American side in full, including the 2025 edition changes and the complete marking decoder.
• OSHA 1910.133 eye and face protection — which editions the American regulation actually incorporates.
• safety glasses vs goggles — matching the protector type to the hazard before you worry about the standard.
• how to choose safety goggles — vent design, splash, and dust selection in depth.
• best safety glasses 2026 — current spectacle picks with marking noted per model.
• when do you need safety glasses — the hazard triggers that make eye protection mandatory.
• how to size safety glasses — coverage and fit, which no certification mark can fix for you.
• safety glasses — the full reviewed range.