The responsibilities and actions required for managing laser safety in the University are outlined in the following policy statement (S2/24).
The use of laser products within the University is both vast and broad. Lasers can cause serious injury to eyes and skin. For an injury to occur, an individual has to be exposed to high hazard radiation emitted from a laser product. Heads of departments have a responsibility to identify the use of laser products in their department and assess the risk of injury. The University's policy statement details how that must be done.
The vast majority of equipment poses little or no risk of laser exposure, so no specific action is required. However, some laser products are only safe under certain circumstances (eg laser displays kept above head height or laser cutters with interlocked enclosures). Also, some suppliers provide laser products that do not meet the relevant laser requirements set out within the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations. As such, all departments should have a basic awareness of this policy so that the general requirements can be applied to all laser products.
An implementation toolkit has been provided to support heads of division and their divisional safety committees in the communication and implementation of this policy statement. Further laser safety guidance pages are also found below.
