Gerard
I think that you need to look at each individual "laser controlled"
area, do a simple risk assessment and
try not to generalise the fix.
Reflection at normal incidence from each air/glass surface is going to
be around 3-4% for most of the lasers we
use. It will rise considerably at angles greater than normal.
i have always assumed that the main purpose for covering a window is to
prevent transmission problems and
have not been unduely worried by the reflection from the glass.
In the majority of surgical cases we are dealing with short focal
length lenses or fibres and have pretty divergent beams.
Kow tow to the control and infection nurse!
Bill Davies
>>> [log in to unmask] 04/16/02 03:35pm >>>
Hello All,
Blinding of windows in laser theatres appears to be generally
recommended to prevent transmission of stray
laser light to the outside world. Co-incidently blinding also happens
to
prevent
any risks from reflections off the internal window surfaces back into
the
rooms.
Recently I've come across windows where the blind is sandwiched
between
the two plates of glass in the window, which is obviously better from
an infection control point of view. But now the reflection hazard is
not
eliminated.
And I'm starting to wonder if reflections from glass/perspex surfaces
are
really
such a big deal, and maybe the sandwiched blind is better.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Regards,
Gerard Boyle
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