Laser Safety

Abstract

Laser accidents have occurred regularly since the device was invented in 1960. Accidental exposures to the eyes, in particular, can be traumatic — one account by an accident victim describes ‘a distinct popping sound’ in the back of his eyeball and his subsequent horror as his vision filled with streams of blood. The early literature has frequent descriptions of incidents of this kind, but, as the reports lost their novelty value, and since little biological information can be gleaned from the circumstantial nature of such cases, the incidence of such publications has declined over the last decade. This should not be, interpreted as a reduction in the number of such accidents — indeed it may be a disadvantage that less attention is being drawn to such catastrophic laser accidents.