The TALSO [Triangle Area Laser Safety Officers] group met April 24 at GSK's RTP site .  Special thanks to Alvin Blount and GlaxoSmithKline for hosting this event.  

Meeting Summary

I. Reviewed notes from Jan. 30 Meeting; no changes/corrections noted

II. Review of 2003 International Laser Safety Conference (Edwards & Hitchcock)
Noted and discussed several themes from the ILSC meeting:
- Ongoing efforts to harmonize international laser safety standards
- Emerging issue: high power LEDs
- Proper role of Probabilistic Risk Assessment in laser safety
- Laser accidents: the US numbers are basically unknown and unknowable due to lack of reporting
- Resurgence of Star Wars money & related projects
- Some interesting bioeffects studies
 
III. G. Nguyen's review of LIA's LSO course
- Noted good range of material offered
- Course text continues to be a useful reference
- Wide disparity in experience of attendees made it difficult to keep everyone's attention
Discussion followed with (LIA instructor) Hitchcock on possible course reorganization to allow smoother topical flow and better retention for attendees.

IV. Any other business
- Conduct CLSO exam locally?  Several folks indicated that they intended to take the CLSO exam within a year or so.  Beasley noted that CCCC would be available at any time for this purpose.
- Note: Kretchman has gotten final version of Class 4 Design Specifications (reviewed in draft form at previous meeting) posted on NCSU's laser safety web site; you can now access it via the TALSO site [www.nchps.org]

V. Schedule next meeting [please bring you calendars!] & select next meeting topics
RESOLVED: Next meeting will be 2:30 PM on THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2003 at GSK
Ideas for next meeting:
- The group agreed we'd like to have a brief educational topic at each meeting
- Action: Sit ask Dr. Payne if he'd agree to present at next meeting
- Action: Edwards approach some LS product vendors about presenting their products at next meeting

Here's the list of specific discussion topics for upcoming meetings:
- Medical Surveillance (why, whom & how much?)
- Entry way controls for class 4 systems
- Tracking high power diode lasers
- Appropriate fire-proof materials
- Handling multiple wavelength lasers (e.g. Ti:Sapphire)
- Release of class 3b & 4 lasers into surplus & unrestricted use
- List of low-cost solutions to laser safety challenges & "low hanging fruit" that get the most impact for the least resource expended in laser safety programs
- Emerging issue: high power LEDs
- Harmonization of international LS standards
- LS for ultra-short pulsed laser systems
- Knowing the unknowable: how to assess US laser accident rates when no one reports laser accidents
- Electrical Safety revisited
- Studying for the CLSO Exam: ideas and strategies
- Bring in a laser and demonstrate doing an alignment