ANSI Z136.8: Why R&D Labs Should Be Using It

A new ANSI (American National Standards Institute) standard has joined the Z136 (Laser Safety) series. ANSI Z136.8 (Safe Use of Lasers in the Research, Development and Testing Setting) works in conjunction with ANSI Z136.1 (Safe Use of Lasers) to provide improved guidance to users and LSOs at facilities where research, development and testing of lasers and laser systems are actively performed. This type of laser usage can present many challenges to an LSO because there can be large variations in use by the facility's personnel and their routine needs to manipulate the optical setup. Z136.8 manages to include all the relevant information from Z136.1 in a condensed format. The Z136.8 standard includes three new appendixes as well as all R&D-relevant appendixes from Z136.1. The current and upcoming versions of Z136.1 allow guidance from specialized/application standards, such as Z136.8, to take precedence within the scope of that standard.