New laser safety classes come into force in 2001

17 Jun 2002

Impending alterations to international laser safety standards will include entirely new classes of lasers and will require many laser manufacturers to reclassify their products.
Brian Tozer, chairman of the European Committee for Laser Safety Standards, believes that many companies are unaware of these changes, which will come into effect before the end of next year."The classification system is being totally revised. However, manufacturers of products that are classified under the current edition of the standard are likely to be able to continue to sell these without reclassification for at least five years," said Tozer.
While these changes will be met with disapproval from some manufacturers, for others the new classifications will be welcome news. For example, some current class 3B products (lasers capable of causing injury) will qualify for the new class 1M or 2M (safe under reasonably foreseeable conditions if optical instruments are not used).
The changes are being made to keep pace with new technology and new uses of lasers. For example, the figures for the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) and the accessible emission limits are being changed to take account of new data for ultrashort pulses.
For wavelengths of between 400 and 600 nm the angle of acceptance is being introduced and MPEs are being revised for exposure times that exceed 10 s.
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Proposed new laser classes

Class 1
Unchanged. These lasers are safe under reasonably foreseeable conditions.

Class 1M
These lasers are safe under reasonably foreseeable conditions if optical instruments are not used. There is no cap on the total output of the laser product. They are likely to be lasers or LEDs with divergent beams, but include products with wide collimated beams.

Class 2
Unchanged. Applies to the visible range. They are safe provided that blink or aversion responses operate.

Class 2M
Applies to the visible range. They are safe if no optical instruments are used and blink responses operate.

Class 3R
These lasers have accessible emission that exceeds the maximum permissible level for an exposure of 0.25 s if they are visible and for 100 s if they are invisible. Their total output does not exceed the accessible emission limits for class 2 (visible) or class 1 (invisible) by more than a factor of five.

Class 3B
Unchanged. However, some current class 3B products will qualify for class 1M or 2M.

Class 4
Unchanged. High-power lasers with no upper limit.

Story courtesy of Opto and Laser Europe magazine.