LASER safety through international information interchange: An introduction to the International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC®) and report of the “ILSC 2013”

The International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC^®) is a biennial conference series organized by the Laser Institute of America (LIA). After two precursor events in the 1980s and early 1990s, the series started in 1997 in Orlando, Florida. The program is scheduled on the odd calendar year and held during the month of March.

1997. Orlando, Florida

1999. Orlando, Florida

2001. San Diego, California

2003. Jacksonville, Florida

2005. Marina del Rey, Los Angeles, California

2007. San Francisco, California

2009. Reno, Nevada

2011. San José, California

2013. Orlando, Florida

The next meeting is planned for March 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The ILSC^® is a comprehensive four-day conference covering all aspects of laser safety practice and hazard control. Scientific sessions address developments in regulatory, mandatory and voluntary safety standards for laser products and for laser use. The Practical Applications Seminars complement the scientific sessions by exploring everyday scenarios that the Laser Safety Officer (LSO) and the Medical Laser Safety Officer (MLSO) may encounter. Also included are courses of further training for LSOs and MLSOs, as well as examinations for LSO/MLSO certification (CLSO: Certified Laser Safety Officer; CMLSO: Certified Medical Laser Safety Officer). In addition, several standardization committees take this opportunity to conduct their meetings while at the conference venue.

The ILSC^® addresses scientists as well as other professionals in all fields dealing with the applications of lasers and laser safety. The conference provides vital information for people in industry, medicine, government and academia with laser safety responsibilities including:

• LSOs

• MLSOs

• Industrial hygienists

• Safety product manufacturers

• Nurses

• Medical technicians

• Laser physicists

• Safety engineers

• Insurance and risk managers

• Biomedical and biophysical researchers

• Health physicists

• Government and military personnel

• Environmental health and safety professionals

• Entertainment lighting producers.

All occupational groups will find ILSC^® a tremendous source for information and networking opportunities.

The attendee list of the “ILSC 2013” included the 164 names of the participants, which is down by 30% compared to previous years. This occurred as a direct effect of the 2013 budget cuts of the US government, which cut the financial support and therefore the approval needed by government-employed potential participants in the US to attend. In spite of this, the majority of conference attendees, about two thirds of the participants, were US citizens. Economical cutbacks also reduced the number of participants from other countries. International countries represented were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Despite these economical influences, the “ILSC 2013” was a great success and featured a rich program. After the conference general chair, Dr. Benjamin Rockwell, had opened the conference, invited speaker, Dr. Daniel Hammer, provided an overview of the scientific challenges addressed in the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) processes for approving laser devices. The second invited speaker, Dr. Eric Van Stryland, gave an interesting view into the development and use of advanced lasers in innovative scientific studies performed at the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL).

Dr. Karl Schulmeister, from Austria, chaired the 13 Laser Safety Scientific Sessions. The session topics were

• Standards and regulations

• Training and programs

• Hazard evaluation and risk assessment

• Non-beam hazards

• High power lasers

• Product safety I

• Product safety II

• Medical applications

• Bioeffects I

• Bioeffects II

• Glare and dazzle

• Outdoor lasers and laser displays

• Laser eye protection and beam propagation.

There also was a poster presentation.

The 2-day Medical Practical Applications Seminar, chaired by Vangie Dennis, was particularly useful for MLSOs who work in operating rooms (OR), surgical centers, aesthetic clinics and medical spas. The topics included

• Plume hazards

• Upper airway practice guidelines

• Ethical dilemmas and accidents in the ORs

• Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) 2011 recommended practices

• American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 2011 standards update

• Medical/legal issues

• Medical laser safety audit

• New and innovative technologies

• What’s new with aesthetics?

The 2-day Technical Practical Applications Seminar, chaired by Ben Edwards, was particularly useful for LSOs who are not full-time laser safety professionals. Participants were involved in panel discussions and hot topics addressing the more common safety issues and concerns of the day-to-day operations in commercial, factory, research and medical facility settings:

• Laser safety in the workplace (research and development labs)

• How to conduct ANSI Z136-based laser hazard calculations?

• Laser pointer characterization and evaluation at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

• Which control measures are mandatory?

• Historical review of laser safety accidents?

• What regulations apply to me?

• Optics for the LSO.

As partners in laser safety, several commercial companies presented their products during the sponsor reception. As at every ILSC^®, the LIA presented the “George M. Wilkening Award” once again to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to laser safety in science, medicine, industry or education. LIA’s executive director, Peter Baker, presented the award to David Jack Lund and Bruce Stuck. In recognition of outstanding contributions in laser safety education, the “R. James Rockwell Jr. Education Achievement Award” was this year given to Roy Henderson. The Board of Laser Safety gave an appreciation reception for all certified LSOs in attendance. At this reception the LIA presented plaques to those who had contributed to the two books which bring together the rich experiences in laser safety in every day practice, as compiled by CLSOs in “The CLSO’s Best Practices in Laser Safety” and by CMLSOs in “The CMLSO’s Best Practices in Medical Laser Safety.” Both books are published by the LIA.

The “ILSC 2013” finished with a closing plenary session, in which the work of the standardization committees was summarized and there was a recapitulation about the photobiological hazards of lamp systems, particularly with the intensities that are currently available. One of the most topical standardization issues is the introduction of a new laser class 1c, which is being widely debated internationally. The “c” is derived from “contact” and the class is meant for laser systems class 3b or 4, intended for home use for cosmetic or epilation purposes, which by construction will only emit laser radiation when the aperture is in close contact with the skin, to prevent hazardous eye exposure. This new laser class would be included in the new third edition of IEC standard 60825-1, which is expected to be published during the course of 2013. Attention was repeatedly drawn to a frightening development namely the uncontrolled trade of incorrectly classified laser pointers, which are readily available, even in reliable internet shops. Pointers were demonstrated with red, green and violet radiation and powers of about 100 mW. Furthermore, pictures of retinal bleeding were shown which had been caused by a laser radiation of only 55 mW.

In the discussion about laser classes, a new laser class 5 was also suggested, for very powerful lasers which could potentially kill a person. With one exception, up to now there have been no cases of laser radiation-caused deaths. There have been cases of staff deaths who were working with lasers, but these were mostly due to electrocution, not due to laser radiation. These statistics, however, do not include patients who have died due to the severe adverse event of an endotracheal tube fire. Although this issue has often been broached over the years, there are still endotracheal tube fires (often caused by ignition sources other than lasers, such as electrosurgical devices), which are very often not reported, although this is a legal requirement. On the contrary, the other lethal hazard of using lasers, the above-mentioned electrical shock, did not find widespread attention in laser safety discussions until the “ILSC 2013”, where the electrical hazard was brought up in several different contexts. Although the focus of laser safety discussions is usually the primary hazard of eye damage by laser radiation, the secondary hazards are also considered at the ILSCs, and especially at ILSC^® this year. Both the “Non-beam hazards session” and the “Medical session” included presentations of the secondary hazards, namely the electrical hazard, the fire hazard and the hazard caused by laser generated air contaminants (LGACs).

The ILSC^® is foremost a forum for discussion of not only the rapidly developing laser technology but also the incredible variety of laser applications in science, material processing, information technology and medicine. With this multitude of laser safety discussions of hazards and safety precautions, and with the in-depth argumentation of all aspects of not yet harmonized standards, all contributions from the industry’s international experts, the ILSC^® can rightly claim to be the world’s leading conference on laser safety.