Volume 7 - Issue 1

Greetings from sunny Orlando, as most of you know home to the BLS and this year’s site of the upcoming International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC®). Information on ILSC abounds in this issue of the BLS News & Review, and for good reason – it is "the" conference for our niche within the laser community.

Of particular interest are the Medical and Technical Practical Applications Seminars, MPAS and TPAS respectively, both of which chaired by BLS certified laser safety officers.

On Monday and Tuesday, sit in on the MPAS sessions. Chair Vangie Dennis tells us, “Attendees will benefit from the cutting-edge medical laser safety presentations designed with a focus on new and innovative medical laser information.” Sessions range from practice compliance to surgical plume management, airway fires to electrical safety, standards of practice to medical legal, and close with challenges of the medical laser safety officer, all of these presented by BLS CMLSOs!

TPAS sessions on Wednesday and Thursday spotlight issues faced by the institutional LSO, including real world lessons on managing site laser safety programs in a variety of settings. Chaired by our own Ben Edwards, “These expositions offer the collected wisdom from the study of actual laser accidents, years of first hand research laser use and laser lab design, revealing valuable observations that accrue only with the benefit of experience and hindsight.”

Concurrent with MPAS and TPAS are the Laser Safety Scientific Sessions (LSSS), which provides the platform for a truly outstanding assortment of presentations from all fields of laser safety, see the ILSC Advance Program for papers to be presented.

The opportunities to network may begin with the sessions and ancillary meetings (see "ASC Z136 News" for meeting details); however, amidst these are the social events we have all come to love – from the Welcome Reception to the Awards Luncheon. Additionally, the BLS will again host an Appreciation Reception during ILSC. This reception is "by invitation only," that is, it is only open to those who are certified or who have expressed an interest in becoming certified. If you would like to attend this event, please contact Ms. Blake Sutton to ensure your admittance.

If you have questions about the conference, receptions or ancillary meetings, please feel free to contact either Blake or myself, by email or on our new office line, 407.985.3810. I look forward to seeing you at ILSC!

Barbara Sams
Executive Director

Featured CMLSO, Dr. Wolfgang Woellmer

My name is Dr. Wolfgang Wöllmer. I studied physics at the University of Hamburg, Germany, received my PhD in Biophysics in 1987 and was acknowledged as a medical physicist specializing in laser medicine by the German Association of Medical Physics in 1985. I work at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany in the Center for Clinical Neurosciences, Department of Oto-, Rhino-, Laryngology. In 1990 I also became a member of the German standardization joint working group “Lasers in Medicine”, which mirrors IEC TC 76/SC62D JWG4 and ISO TC 172 SC9 WG4, and was elected as chairman in 1994... (more)

Featured CLSO, DeWayne Holcomb

I am R. DeWayne Holcomb, CLSO, CHP, Laser Safety Manager at the University of Texas at Austin. One of the members of the newly formed Laser Safety Committee, H. Lee Seegmiller, was quite a safety bulldog. The committee chair, Dr. Steven Dunagan, would take time to assist me at many of the laser safety inspections we conducted in labs, aircraft, etc. These researchers, and the US Army Laser and RF/MW Course at Aberdeen, MD, were core influences on my view of laser safety. I also worked with Jamie King, the current LSO at Lawrence Livermore National Labs, at NASA in the 90’s. We were responsible for safety evaluations for research labs, aircraft laser emissions, giant wind tunnel laser setups, RF transmitters, and for the NASA Dryden facility at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. It was sink or swim, so we swam hard... (more)

ASC Z136 News

As reported in the November issue of the BLS News & Review, the ASC Z136 Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, March 17, 2013, the day before the start of the International Laser Safety Conference (ILSC) in Orlando, FL... (more)

Welcome New CLSOs!

Welcome New CMLSOs!

Save the Dates!

If your company/organization is planning an event and would like to be listed above, as well as apply for BLS Certification Maintenance points, please contact us at bls@lasersafety.org. Thank you.

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