This text initially appeared on Quartz.
For those who’re one of many thousands and thousands of individuals in North America planning to witness the pure phenomenon, making a final minute Amazon Prime order for eclipse glasses might not be the very best concept.
The American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) Photo voltaic Eclipse Process Pressure issued a warning in late March that it has found evidence that counterfeit and fake eclipse glasses and viewers have entered the market.
An unidentified manufacturing facility in China has been printing on its eclipse viewing merchandise that they had been manufactured by American Paper Optics, a serious U.S.-based maker of secure eclipse viewers. Whereas the AAS says these most up-to-date counterfeits do “seem like secure,” the society warns towards shopping for counterfeit merchandise as they don’t seem to be assured to be of constant high quality.
Moreover, the AAS has additionally discovered that a number of unidentified Chinese language factories have been labeling their merchandise as being made by the professional producer Cangnan County Qiwei Craft Co. A few of these merchandise even embrace printed logos of Qiwei’s main North American distributor, Photo voltaic Eclipse Worldwide, Canada. The AAS has decided that a few of these merchandise will not be solely counterfeit, they’re additionally unsafe for viewing an eclipse.
To make it simpler for customers to purchase legit and secure photo voltaic eclipse glasses, the AAS has compiled a list over a hundred producers, distributors, and retailers it has vetted that provide lab-tested glasses. Main retailers on the checklist embrace Walmart, Warby Parker, Lowe’s, and even 7-Eleven.
Notably lacking from the checklist are a number of e-commerce giants.
“We don’t advocate trying to find eclipse glasses on Amazon, eBay, Temu, or every other on-line market and shopping for from whichever vendor provides the bottom value,” the AAS mentioned. “Before you purchase a photo voltaic viewer or filter on-line, we advocate that you simply make it possible for the vendor is recognized on the location and the vendor is listed on this web page.”
When Quartz reached out to Amazon, eBay, and Temu to seek out out what these firms are doing to guard its costumers from fraudulent photo voltaic eclipse viewers, eBay was the one one to reply.
“eBay solely permits the sale of eclipse glasses verified by the American Astronomical Society to fulfill worldwide security requirements,” eBay informed Quartz in an emailed assertion.
The corporate added that it makes use of “a number of layers of AI expertise, professionally educated eBay investigators, and purchaser safety packages” to make sure items bought on its platform are genuine.
For those who’ve already bought glasses or viewers from retailers not on the AAS checklist, the group advises that this doesn’t essentially imply they’re unsafe. There are strategies out there to test their safety.
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