Laser hazards Laser beam and no laser beam hazards

Lasers play an increasingly important role in our daily lives, whether in the home or at work. However, the risks associated with their use are often poorly understood. In today's economic climate, a serious accident, death or disabling injury can jeopardize a development program or a research project.

The aim of this article is to provide a basic understanding of laser safety and to reduce the possibility of generating a laser accident. Risks linked to the use of laser beams, as well as non-beam, electrical, chemical and acoustic risks, are also mentioned.

This article provides an update on the latest legislation and European standards published in 2010 and 2014. It explains the fundamental notion of maximum permissible exposure for skin and eyes, and the various classes of lasers that derive from it. Potential modes of destruction when laser radiation interacts with human biological tissues, as well as the eye's behavior in relation to wavelengths, are presented. All of these risks, which are likely to arise in research laboratories, are analyzed using various quantitative examples.

This article, written from the point of view of the researcher and the preventer, is intended to be pragmatic.