Eye injuries and the women's eyewear rule.

Everything on this page concerns the women's and girls' game unless a line says otherwise. Men's and boys' players wear a helmet with a full face mask, and no men's rule book read for this site requires separate eyewear (World Lacrosse men's field rules 2025-2027 v1.0, Rule 17.1).

The injury data

A four-year prospective study by Lincoln, Hinton, Almquist, Lager and Dick (American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2007) followed 23 Fairfax County, Virginia public high schools and the NCAA Injury Surveillance System over the 2000 to 2003 seasons. As MedStar Health summarises it:

These are head, face and eye injury rates combined. The kind of injury differed by game. For boys and men the main head and face injury was concussion, mostly from body contact; for girls and women it was contusion, mostly from incidental stick or ball contact, and a significant share of the women's injuries involved the face and the area around the eye.

A figure reported two ways. MedStar's summary gives the college women-to-men rate ratio as 1.76 (95 percent confidence interval 1.42 to 2.19). A MedStar slide deck on the same study was reported, in a search summary, to give 1.61; the deck itself was not read.

How eyewear became compulsory

In May 2003 the US Lacrosse Women's Division Board of Governors voted to strongly recommend protective eyewear meeting the current ASTM lacrosse standards for 2004 and to make it mandatory from 1 January 2005, delaying the mandate because of product availability (ISHN, 30 May 2003). The stated aim was to prevent the rare but catastrophic eye injury in a sport described as comparatively safe. MedStar Health records that the decision followed literature reviews and recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the US Lacrosse Sports Science and Safety Committee, and that it applied at youth, scholastic and collegiate levels from 2005.

The first compulsory year is disputed. The sources give different starts for different bodies:

• US Lacrosse: 1 January 2005 (ISHN, 2003). A 2012 study summary puts it as the 2004-2005 season.
• Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia: from the 2004 spring season (MedStar Health).
• NFHS high school girls' lacrosse: from 2004, one year before US Lacrosse, according to a secondary website seen only in a search summary. No NFHS document was found, so this is unconfirmed.
• NCAA: required at its spring 2004 championships, with full-season use from 2005, according to the same unconfirmed secondary source. No NCAA document was found.
• A ScienceDaily report of the 2007 study, seen only in a search summary, said eyewear was not required for female players at any level before 2005.

What studies of the mandate reported

MedStar Health describes a study sponsored by US Lacrosse in 25 Fairfax County public high schools, comparing 2000 to 2003 (before the rule) with 2004 to 2007 (after), with the eye injury rate as its main outcome. The published paper is "Effectiveness of the Women's Lacrosse Protective Eyewear Mandate in the Reduction of Eye Injuries" (American Journal of Sports Medicine, 2012). Its journal page could not be opened, so the figures below rest on search summaries and are unconfirmed.

• The 2012 paper, as summarised: eye injuries fell from 0.10 per 1,000 athletic exposures in 2000 to 2003 to 0.016 in 2004 to 2009; the concussion rate ratio rose (1.6, 95 percent CI 1.1 to 2.3); total injuries did not change.
• An earlier 2010 conference abstract on the same Fairfax County setting, presented to the American Public Health Association, was reported to give eye injury rates falling from 0.06 to 0.02 per 1,000 exposures (rate ratio 0.32), a concussion rate ratio of 2.2 and an all-injury rate ratio of 1.5.

The two reports used different periods and give different effect sizes. Neither is confirmed against its primary text here.

A related 2012 Pediatrics study by Kriz, Comstock and colleagues looked at high school field hockey, not lacrosse, and found players in states without an eyewear mandate were more than five times as likely to suffer an eye injury. The investigators described the evidence from high school women's lacrosse as supporting mandated eyewear (OphthalmologyWeb, 2012).

The eyewear standard

ASTM F3077 is the "Standard Specification for Eye Protectors for Women's Lacrosse". A German standards distributor lists the current edition as F3077-25, covering eye protectors that reduce the risk of eye injury from ball impact and penetration and that protect the eyes only. Listings in search results name earlier editions F3077-14, F3077-17 and F3077-21. ASTM's own F3077 page was not read, so the editions and dates are unconfirmed here. An older multi-sport eye protector specification, ASTM F803, is described in a search summary of a standards store listing as covering women's lacrosse among other sports; that is also unconfirmed. More on the standard is on protective eyewear.

Two US compliance details rest on secondary documents only. A memo hosted by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, a trade body, says that from 1 January 2020 girls' eyewear at youth and high school level had to be SEI certified to the current F3077 and listed on SEI's website to be legal. A search summary of a USA Lacrosse FAQ page, which returned an error when opened, says headgear with built-in eyewear must meet F3077-17 as well as the headgear standard. Neither was confirmed from a USA Lacrosse or NFHS original, and current NCAA and NFHS eyewear rule text was not read.

World Lacrosse

• Women's field, 2025-2026 v1.0 (Rules 6.A.2 to 6.A.4). Field players may wear eye guards. Any worn must meet the safety aspects of Rule 6 or a certification requirement of any country, organisation or standard, and World Lacrosse says it does not guarantee, monitor or approve eye guards or any certification process. Prescription glasses or sunglasses may be worn, with shatter-resistant frames and lenses strongly recommended. Version 1.1 (March 2025) exists but was not read.
• Sixes, 2026-2028 v2.0 (Rule 2.4.1W). From the 2027 Sixes World Championships, all women's sixes field players at World Lacrosse owned and sanctioned events must wear protective eyewear meeting the applicable ASTM or a comparable standard, with no medical exemptions.
• Decision of 12 May 2026. Protective eyewear becomes compulsory in women's field and women's sixes at World Lacrosse owned and sanctioned events: from the 2027 Sixes World Championships, and in women's field from the 2029 Women's U20 Championship or an earlier continental qualifier for the 2030 Women's Championship.

The women's field book and the May 2026 decision are both correct for their dates: eye guards are optional under the 2025-2026 book and compulsory at World Lacrosse events from 2029. World Lacrosse cited studies indicating eyewear can cut the likelihood of catastrophic eye injury by up to 84 percent when an impact occurs. Its release does not name the studies, and this site could not identify them, so the figure is World Lacrosse's claim.

Elsewhere, unconfirmed

Two further rules rest on search summaries only. Lacrosse Australia was reported to require approved eye protection from 1 January 2019 at its U18 national championship and U15 national tournament, and for all female players in its programmes and events from 1 January 2023, after a delay linked to COVID-19; its page returned an error when opened. British Universities and Colleges Sport (university sport, not England Lacrosse) was reported to require lacrosse-specific eyewear meeting ASTM F3077 or UKCA certification for women's field players. No England Lacrosse eyewear document was found.