Reference

Three systems certify work boots in North America and Europe and they do not share notation: ASTM F2413 in the United States, CSA Z195 in Canada, and EN ISO 20345 in Europe. This guide decodes all three, compares the toe impact values honestly, and answers whether an imported S3 or CSA boot satisfies OSHA 29 CFR 1910.136.

ASTM F2413 defines the marking stamped inside every rated boot — F2413-24 is the current edition, F2413-18 is what most in-market stock carries, and reading that multi-line code is the difference between compliant footwear and a failed audit. The standard superseded the older ANSI Z41. This guide decodes the marking, every supplemental code (EH, PR, MT, SD), and a worked example for an electrician.

Steel toe and composite toe boots meet the same ASTM F2413 protection level when rated, so the real decision is the cap's secondary properties: weight, conductivity, metal-detector behavior, electrical-hazard pairing, and cost. This guide decodes every difference under OSHA 1910.136 and walks a worked example of choosing a toe type by job.