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ANSI Standards for Lasers

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) provides the most commonly cited documents for laser standards--the ANSI Z136 series of standards.

  1. ANSI

    • ANSI's mission statement is to enhance global competitiveness of U.S. businesses and improve the quality of life of Americans by developing voluntary consensus standards and conformity assessment systems for a wide variety of industry sectors. ANSI provides the most widely cited document for laser standards.

    ANSI Z136 Series

    • The Z136 series of ANSI standards (ANSI Z136.1--ANSI Z136.7) provides standards for laser use and care in a variety of circumstances. These documents include standards for safe use of lasers, safe use of optical fiber communication systems utilizing laser diode and LED sources, safe use of lasers in health-care facilities, hazard evaluation, safe use in educational institutions, safe use outdoors, and testing and labeling of protective equipment.

    ANSI Z136.1

    • The most widely cited of the ANSI Z136 series is ANSI Z136.1--safe use of lasers, which includes an overview of the other more specific standards. It includes a discussion of laser hazard evaluation, including limits for maximum permissible exposures (MPEs), administrative measures, control measures, procedural measures, guidelines for laser safety officers, non-beam hazards, and training and medical surveillance programs.

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