The TALSO [Triangle Area Laser Safety Officers] group met February 10 at Dupont's RTP facility. Special thanks to Allan Nowak and Dupont for hosting this event. Here's a summary:
I. Reviewed notes from October 14, 2004 Meeting; no outstanding action items
II. Briefly review Lewandowski & Hinz' "A simple approach to industrial laser safety" paper in Feb. 2005 Operational Radiation Safety [Supplement to Health Physics 88(2)]. R. Buschow summarized this article, which describes 3M company's laser safety program. Key points of this paper included how to maintain a comprehensive laser safety program (including hazard evaluations, engineering & administrative controls, protective equipment, signs & labels, training, and change management) in a way that facilitates rapid and efficient integration of laser technology into the manufacturing environment.
III. Round Table Discussion: Lasers and Airline Pilots - In the News, but how big of an issue is it?
- The group reviewed some recent media reports, FAA guidance documents and studies, and some tabulations of the range of visible cw lasers in air to exceed various FAA irradiance limits at a given output power.
- Discussion: What does TALSO (the representative laser safety organization of central NC) propose should be done, if anything?
Resolved: The group concluded that no additional government regulation (e.g. registration/licensing of Class 4 lasers, as is done in many states) is warranted because such measures would not discernibly safeguard against this sort of incident. Instead, the group recommended that TALSO members and laser safety professionals everywhere recommit to earlier TALSO informal guidance:
1) Maintain the integrity of site laser inventory by conducting periodic physical inventories of all Class 3b & 4 lasers on site; and
2) Make a good faith effort to discover lasers being donated/transferred to other institutions, and contact the LSO of the receiving institution to alert them of the new laser coming to their facility;
These steps should help reduce the number of high powered lasers falling into the hands of workers with no site laser safety program, or worse yet, the general public. However there is no law restricting access to these lasers, so for the time being, anyone can easily obtain a new or used Class 4 laser. Also, ongoing technological advances ensure lasers will continue to increase in output power while decreasing in size and power consumed. Therefore this subject warrants continued scrutiny, along with the related issue of lasers scanning motor vehicles, etc.
ACTION: A. Sawyer volunteered to investigate the existing laser regulations in those states that require laser registration, etc. and report back at next TALSO meeting, specifically with regard to how such laws are implemented and what, if any, effect they may have on reducing these sorts of incidents
ACTION: BE forward url of laser regulations paper; here it is:
http://www.laserinstitute.org/publications/safety_bulletin/govt_regulation/
http://www.laserinstitute.org/publications/safety_bulletin/govt_regulation/Govt_Regulations.pdf
IV. Preview: 2005 International Laser Safety Conference!
- Noted the 2005 ILSC March 7 - 10
V. Schedule next meeting
- 2 PM [NOTE NEW EARLIER TIME!] on Thursday, June 9, 2005 at Dupont - Thanks again to Allan Nowak and Dupont for agreeing to host this meeting.
Thank you again for your interest. See you June 9!