A record number of sponsors and the return of a special-topic luncheon will highlight the latest installment of LIA’s intensive four-day International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC®) in New Mexico this March.
Chaired by Dr. John O’Hagan, head of Public Health, England’s Laser and Optical Radiation Dosimetry Group, ILSC 2015 will be held at the Embassy Suites hotel in Albuquerque from Mar. 23-26. Stepping in for past chairman Ben Rockwell due to a professional conflict, O’Hagan notes that “we have a wide range of topics from the basic bioeffects to very practical offerings.” Continue reading →
ORLANDO, FL, Jan 19, 2015 — For the first time since 2007, the Laser Institute of America has updated its acclaimed Laser Safety Guide making it a necessity for every safe laser environment. Easy to comprehend and full of practical information, the Laser Safety Guide is a quick read that can benefit anyone who uses lasers in their workplace. The Laser Safety Guide has been revised to comply with the new terminology and guidelines of the 2014 edition of the ANSI Z136.1 Safe Use of Lasers standard. It can be used in conjunction with or as a supplement to any of the ANSI Z136 standards.
“The new Laser Safety Guide is an update of the document that reflects the dramatic changes in the ANSI Z136.1-2014 standard. The guide is a fundamental tool for any laser safety expert who desires to develop and advance a laser safety program or execute laser safety for a single laser,” says Ben Rockwell, prior chair of the ANSI Z136.1 rewrite committee and editor of the revision for the Laser Safety Guide. Rockwell recommends everyone who uses lasers have this guide. “It is geared toward the beginner in laser safety, but would benefit even the most seasoned expert. The guide progresses through fundamental concepts of laser safety, with examples where they provide an understanding of the application of the standard.”
BMW revealed a new headlight concept at the recent CES event in Las Vegas. These new headlights use lasers along with GPS to create a number of safety advances. Please watch the video below to find out how lasers are going to help make us safer on the road.
WASHINGTON – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has renewed an alliance with the Laser Institute of America to help protect workers from exposure to beam and non-beam laser hazards in industrial, construction, medical and research workplaces.
“Workers unprotected from laser exposure can suffer serious eye and skin injuries including permanent blindness and tissue damage,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “We will continue to work together to produce valuable safety and health information and training to protect workers using laser technology.”
During the five-year alliance, participants will provide annual training on the Best Practices Seminar on Laser Safety and develop a Webinar training program based on the seminar, and distribute laser safety guidance products at safety conferences and exhibits. OSHA and LIA previously developed fact sheets on the effects of lasers on the eye and skin, hazards associated with using high-power welders and cutters, and materials for use during hazard analysis of workplaces with lasers. The alliance also developed a guidance document outlining 10 steps necessary to begin a laser safety program in the health industry, and conducted 18 Laser Safety Best Practices seminars that trained more than 500 OSHA compliance personnel on what to look for and ask when entering facilities that use lasers.
LIA, founded in 1968, is a professional society for laser applications and safety that provides information to industrial, medical, research and government communities. The organization includes more than 1,600 corporate and individual members.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.
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U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The department’s Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the department at (202) 693-7828 (voice) or (800) 877-8339 (federal relay).
On the heels of significant revisions to two parent laser safety standards, the Laser Institute of America’s biennial International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC®) from March 23-26 in Albuquerque, NM, will again showcase the best user practices in industrial and medical photonics applications.
Chaired again by Ben Rockwell from Fort Sam Houston, TX, ILSC 2015 promises to devote significant time to focusing on new guidelines in the just-revised ANSI Z136.1-2014 and IEC 60825 standards for laser safety.
Rockwell, general chair of ILSC since 2007, ensures that the conference has “topics from the very basic, fundamental laser safety — for example, the best way to do calculations, the best way to read select standards and make your personal interpretations and apply those standards — to very advanced topics like fume extraction, what the latest maximum permissible exposure changes are, and how those are relevant to the bioeffects that really occur in the human.”
ILSC will follow its traditional format of Medical and Technical Practical Applications Seminars (PAS) and Laser Safety Scientific Sessions (LSSS). The industry leading experts in charge of those educational tracks promise a hard-hitting slate of trailblazing content. Continue reading →
