Class 3R and the upcoming consumer laser safety standard in europe - A challenge! Available to Purchase

Following a mandate issued by the European Commission to the European standardisation organisation CENELEC, a standard for laser products intended to be sold to consumers is currently developed. The main challenge is to decide if Class 3R products should they be generally permitted as consumer products, or only a subgroup, or not at all. To require the manufacturer to perform a risk analysis is another option that is followed up. This paper reports on some emission parameter combinations where exposure at five times the MPE for retinal thermal damage (the maximum permitted emission of Class 3R lasers) exceeds injury thresholds known from rhesus monkey experiments by more than a factor of two. Although there is data showing that there is some margin between the injury thresholds of the human and the rhesus monkey retina, it might not be sufficient to justify that all Class 3R lasers are sufficiently safe to be used as consumers without eye protection.