Re: Laser Eye Medical Exams

[rcmannix@uci.edu (Richard C. Mannix)]

>For those individuals who also function as the Laser Safety Officer.
>What type of medical exam is required at your facility as a baseline for
>laser users ?

> If not what is your concern that you may have a liability issue by not
having all personnel who use
>lasers have a baseline exam with at least the 4 items above ? 
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We do not require baseline or termination eye exams for laser users at the
University of California, Irvine. Significant eye injuries produced by laser
radiation have occurred so very infrequently (both on our campus and in
other laser facilities in the U.S.) that such exams are not warranted.

On the practical side, our EH&S Department does not have the budget to fund
these exams, and Principal Investigators will never include the costs of
such exams in their research budgets. 

Remember that laser-related eye exams are a liability issue, not a safety
issue. A laser user can have such an exam weekly, but if he/she is very
careless or particularly unlucky, an eye injury can occur. Thus, the purpose
of the exams is just to reduce the likelihood of subsequent lawsuits, which
have not been a problem for us. The eye exams in no way increase the safety
of a laser laboratory.

We focus our resources in attempting to make all laser laboratories on
campus as safe as possible. If we spent a lot of our time trying to convince
Principal Investigators to include the costs of the eye exams in their
budgets, or our EH&S Department funds in financing the exams, we would not
be making the best use of our time and money.



Rick Mannix
Health Physicist
Laser Safety Officer
Univ. of Calif., Irvine
949-824-6098
rcmannix@uci.edu