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Basic Laser Safety - Basic Safety Precautions

    One should exercise the same kinds of safety precautions around lasers as with any other power tool or electrical device paying special attention to eye safety.

NEVER point a laser in someone's eyes, even low power hand held units can cause eye damage due to the focusing effect of the lens in the eye.

    Laser Safety glasses/goggles with specially coated lenses are available.  The coatings on the lenses are designed to absorb or attenuate certain wavelengths so that if you are accidentally struck in the eye by the beam, damage is minimized.  Unfortunately these glasses often make it difficult if not impossible to see the beam.  A pair of welders goggles will work as they reduce the light to the eyes by a factor of 10X to 50X.  While welding goggles will not give total protection, they may reduce the beam power down to levels where damage is less likely.

    Stay outside of any 'safe zone' around lasers at shows. The 'safe zone' is there to prevent audience access to the laser equipment and to prevent spectators [you] from harming themselves or being hit by laser beams.

    Higher power static (un-scanned) beams such as those projected by beam tables or reflected from bounce mirrors should be kept above the spectator's heads and out of the audience's reach. The ANSI standard (used internationally) and the CDRH standards (used in the USA) specify that such un-scanned (static) beams are to separated from the audience by 3 meters vertically and 2.5 meters laterally.

• NEVER project un-scanned beams into an audience.

• NEVER use mirrors or watch crystals to deflect static beams at shows as you can cause eye damage to yourself or other spectators.

• NEVER float Mylar coated balloons at shows into the beam paths above the audience as they can deflect laser beams into people's eyes..

• NEVER deflect laser beams with hand held mirrors as they are difficult to control and can direct beams in unexpected ways causing eye damage.

• NEVER track a moving vehicle such as a car or aircraft with a laser - even a very low power hand held HeNe laser or diode based laser pointer. With higher power units you may temporarily blind the operator or destroy their night vision. The effect is similar to having your picture taken with a flash camera in a dark room.  There is no permanent damage but your vision is disrupted and there is an afterimage of the flash that persist for some seconds.  Even low power lasers may cause a distraction to the driver/pilot leading to an accident.