Posts Tagged ‘laser safety training’

Laser Safety Training – Class 3 Lasers

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

As part of New Look Laser College’s commitment to provide education on laser safety, here’s the next part of our review of laser classes. Our tattoo removal training course focuses on Class 4 lasers used for laser tattoo removal.

Class III lasers and laser systems (medium power) produce radiation that can cause eye damage when viewed directly, or when a specular reflection is viewed. A diffuse reflection is usually not a hazard.

Class 3 lasers are medium power lasers or laser systems that require control measures to prevent viewing of the direct beam. Control measures emphasize preventing exposure of the eye to the primary or specularly reflected beam.

Examples of Class 3 Lasers

* Visible CW HeNe lasers above 1 mW, not exceeding 5 mW radiant power.
* Visible cw HeNe lasers above 5 mW, but not exceeding 500 mW radiant power

Laser Safety Training – Class 2 Lasers

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Class 2 lasers are familiar to many of us – many laser pointers fall into this category. These lasers are safe because the blink reflex will limit exposure to no more than 0.25 seconds. Among the criteria for these lasers are (1) visible light lasers (400 nanometers to 700 nanometers); (2) up to 1mW of continuous wave output or up to 0.25 seconds or if the light is not spatially coherent.

The lasers used for tattoo removal are Class 4 and they present a direct and reflected radiation risk to practitioners, patients, and by-standards. At New Look Laser College’s laser tattoo removal training program we provide extensive training and practice to students to make sure they are in full command of laser safety principles. The protocols are easy to remember and will become second-nature once they’ve been followed a few times. We emphasize the importance of them so that our laser training students don’t get lax once they’ve started their practice and start taking shortcuts.

Laser Safety Training – Class 1 Lasers

Monday, December 1st, 2008

As part of New Look Laser College’s laser tattoo removal training program, we review laser safety protocols extensively. One of the elements of the laser training is reviewing the types of lasers and risks posed by each. Here is a review of Class 1 lasers:

A class 1 laser is safe under all conditions of normal use. Examples include high power lasers with radiation blocked by an enclosure than prevents external emission. If the outer casing of such a laser were to be opened, the laser would be shut down. A laser printer would be an example of a Class 1 laser.

A second type class 1 laser is a Class 1M laser. Under normal operating conditions these laser cannot producing damaging levels of radiation unless the laser beam is viewed with a telescope or eye-loupe.

Laser Safety Training – Laser Tattoo Removal Training

Sunday, November 30th, 2008

Laser safety training is an important element of New Look Laser College’s laser tattoo removal training course. The lasers that are used for laser tattoo removal are Class 4 lasers meaning that they have both direct and reflected radiation hazards.

Why is laser safety training important? Tattoo removal lasers are powerful devices that can injure practitioners, patients, and bystanders. Common injuries associated with lasers include: eye injury, skin injury, electrical injury, accidents associated with laser malfunction, exposure that doesn’t lead to direct hard, and fire.

Our next laser college blog posts will go through the 4 classes of laser and describe features and examples of each.