New arrangement for laser safety in Israel

Israel is a laser-saturated country, where more than 4000 class 3B and class 4 lasers are currently installed and operated. This considerable amount of lasers in a relatively small country raises serious safety problems facing the safety authorities in different governmental offices and institutions. The Israeli Institute of Standards adopted the IEC 60825-1, 1997, standard as the Israeli Standard for laser products, but there are presently no special occupational safety regulations dedicated to lasers. The lasers are treated as a general hazard source that causes general requests, such as: warning signs, safety training and the use of personal protective means. But, because of lack of laser experts in the Labor Inspectorate, even these minimal requests could not be sufficiently enforced.