This text initially appeared on Quartz.
Should you’re one of many tens of millions of individuals in North America planning to witness the pure phenomenon, making a final minute Amazon Prime order for eclipse glasses will not be one of the best concept.
The American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) Photo voltaic Eclipse Activity Drive 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 unit 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 protected eclipse viewers. Whereas the AAS says these most up-to-date counterfeits do “seem like protected,” 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 official producer Cangnan County Qiwei Craft Co. A few of these merchandise even embody printed logos of Qiwei’s main North American distributor, Photo voltaic Eclipse Worldwide, Canada. The AAS has decided that a few of these merchandise aren’t solely counterfeit, they’re additionally unsafe for viewing an eclipse.
To make it simpler for shoppers to purchase legit and protected 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 listing embody Walmart, Warby Parker, Lowe’s, and even 7-Eleven.
Notably lacking from the listing are a couple of e-commerce giants.
“We don’t suggest looking for eclipse glasses on Amazon, eBay, Temu, or every other on-line market and shopping for from whichever vendor provides the bottom value,” the AAS stated. “Before you purchase a photo voltaic viewer or filter on-line, we suggest that you just guarantee that 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 corporations 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 skilled eBay investigators, and purchaser safety applications” to make sure items bought on its platform are genuine.
Should you’ve already bought glasses or viewers from retailers not on the AAS listing, the group advises that this doesn’t essentially imply they’re unsafe. There are strategies accessible to test their safety.
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