Being safe with glass in the home

By Frank G. Ross

It’s the sort of thing that happens in the movies.  The hero crashes through a window which breaks into dangerous shards, yet he escapes without injury.  The reality is a little different.  Many years ago when my younger sister and brother were children, they were chasing each other through the house.  Accidentally, my sister crashed into the glass in the front door.  The impact of her fist caused the glass to break and seriously cut her wrist taking quite a few stitches to repair the wound.

Incidents like this one were probably the impetus for the implementation of standards regarding safety glazing.  In 1977, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) established a federal safety glazing standard (Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 1201, category II) designed to reduce the risk of serious injuries caused by accidental impact with glazing materials in homes and other buildings. The standard was intended to apply to all glazing materials, and preempt local building codes which varied in degrees from location to location.  At about the same time the American National Standards Institute developed its standard referred to as ANSI Z97.1. The ANSI Z 97.1 standard is most commonly used for residential applications while the CPSC CFR 1201 is more often found in commercial applications for glazing.

The Federal safety glazing law stipulates that safety glazing be used in architectural applications (homes and buildings) in defined hazardous locations. Generally the hazardous locations include doors intended for human passage, windows within 24” of a door, bath and shower enclosures, glazing adjacent to passages where there are walking surfaces adjacent to the glass and the bottom edge of the glass is within 18” of the floor, and all other areas where human impact is likely. In addition to the Federal law, which is a minimum standard, various local code authorities have additional requirements. Overhead glazing such as that used for skylights must meet requirements for safety specified by local building codes.

Safety glazing prevents windows from shattering into shards of glass. Instead, when broken by impact, fully tempered glass immediately disintegrates into relatively small pieces thereby greatly reducing the likelihood of serious cutting or piercing injuries in comparison with ordinary annealed glass.

Be aware that safety glazing is not required for all windows and doors in a home, just those in potentially hazardous locations.  So impact accidents causing glass to break into shards can still occur and often do occur.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that in 1995, there were over 225,000 glass related accidents in the U.S. These statistics were gathered from the emergency rooms of hospitals and doctors throughout the nation.  That number is estimated to be higher now especially with the increased used of glass in building features.  Also, many more incidents go unreported.

Typically safety glass, as defined by the Glazing Association of North America, is tempered (specially heat-treated)), or laminated with a plastic layer, or features wire imbedded in the glass. The wire embedded glass is considered safety glass only in certain applications. Look for a permanent mark in one of the corners showing the manufacturer's name, type of safety glass, and the thickness.

Frank Ross is a Certified Utah Home Inspector for Pillar to Post Professional Home Inspection a full member of the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors and a member in good standing with the Utah Better Business Bureau.  Readers may contact Mr. Ross at (435) 867-6400 or frank.ross@pillartopost.com