Product Code: ILSC2011_801

Retinal Damage Threshold in the 1 ns to 100 ns Exposure Duration Range
Authors:
Brian J. Lund, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research; Fort Sam Houston TX USA
David J. Lund, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research; Fort Sam Houston TX
Peter R. Edsall, TASC, Inc.; San Antonio TX
Martin L. Holmes, U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research; Fort Sam Houston TX
Presented at ILSC 2011

The draft updates to American and international laser exposure guidelines (ANSI Z136, ICNIRP) recommend that the Maximum Permissible Exposure level (MPE) be reduced in the nanosecond to microsecond exposure duration range. We report on our measurement of the ED50 for laser-induced retinal injury for exposures to 13 ns and 100 ns pulses at 532 nm. These new data, coupled with recently reported ED50 measurements for 3.5 ns and 5 ns exposures, indicate a slow monotonic increase of the ED50 in the 1 ns to 100 ns exposure duration range, and support current recommendations to lower the Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPE) limits.