Introduction

The common point between all the laser accidents presented in the following pages is their location in research laboratories. Why uniquely in laboratories? Because these are the places where the beams are the most often directly worked on (laser development research). In Laser technology development, the M.P.E. can indeed often exceed the authorized M.P.E. When looking at Fig. 1, one can notice that the populations mostly exposed to laser accidents are scientists and laser-specialized technicians, who, unlike the other categories, develop and optimize laser systems instead of simply using them. According to the standard (NF) EN 60825, people using laser systems as tools must only use class 1 systems. Then, these users are mostly exposed to radiation levels inferior to the M.P.E.