Safety around lasers is an important issue which deserves the full attention of anyone who is in the vicinity of an operating laser system. Unfortunately, laser safety is overlooked all too often which can result in eye damage from exposed lasear beams. Eye protection is by far the most important issue, however other aspects need to be considered also.
The output from powerful lasers can be concentrated to power densities that are high enough to evaporate tissue. It is possible too cause irreversible occular injury with just one glance into a direct or reflected laser beam, even at low power level.s
The Australian and New Zealand Standard AS/NZS1337.4 and .5 are based on the European laser safety standards EN207 and EN208 which state that the laser safety eyewear (lenses and frame) must be able to withstand the direct hit of a laser beam for 10 seconds (CW laser) or 100 pulses (pulsed laser), allowing the user time to react and move. For this, the power or energy density of the laser beam must also be considered. It is not sufficient to consider the Optical Density (OD) of the material of the eyewear alone, if the material cannot withstand a direct hit by the laser beam.
The laser safety eyewear and other laser safety products manufactured by Laservision and supplied by Coherent Scientific, are fully compliant with AS/NZS1337.4 and AS1337.5.
Further background information is available on Laservision's website.