This paper presents the status of existing standard publications, technical reports, and recommended practices within the international technical committee IEC/TC 76 “Optical radiation safety and laser equipment”, and the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) Z136 of the American National Standards Institute. In layman's terms, the former addresses “laser equipment” while the latter addresses “user safety”, and is predominantly used within the United States. The standard series of ANSI Z136, IEC 60825 and IEC 62471, as well as joint documents with ISO within the ISO 11553 and ISO 19818 series will also be discussed.
Additionally, we provide an overview of new standards currently under development, and topics for future standards within these committees. Lastly, we will explain the structure of the two standardization committees for optical radiation, and how experts can get involved in the standard development process of IEC/TC 76 and ASC Z136.