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MY REVIEW OF THE 7TH ANNUAL DOE LSO WORKSHOP 2011
By: Richard Shea
This summer I had the pleasure of attending the 2011 DOE LSO Workshop. The location was the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. As a first time attendee I was not disappointed in the program. There was something for everyone in the laser safety field.
One of my favorites was the ANSI Update by Bill Ertle of Rockwell. He stated that there are several updates in the works with the new Z136.8 Research and Development document hopefully available by the beginning of next year. The latest update to the Z136.3 Health Care use could be out by the end of this year and an update to Z136.1 possibly out by 2013.
During the lunch break there was a choice of mini workshops you could attend on using either Lazan or Easy Haz laser analysis software and a workshop put on by the Board of Laser Safety to enlighten people on the benefits of CLSO and CMLSO. All were well attended.
On the 2nd day one of my favorites was listening to Antonio Triventi the LSO for Northwestern University on how Developing a Laser Safety Culture followed by an afternoon of speakers discussing the various topics concerning laser use in the health care setting.
The final day was a nice wrap up with David Sliney discussing the upcoming changes to the MPE values in the ANSI updates and how these changes were brought about. Ken Barat the workshop director closed out the workshop with the importance of On the Job Training; how the LSO should make sure the training is documented properly and that it was not propagating bad habits in the users. I realize I have only briefly mentioned some of the topics discussed, there were so many you would have to experience them yourself, plus these were some that I was personally interested in.
One of the great benefits of this conference was the ability to network to meet your counterparts from different places and to also catch up with some old friends. The vendors had setup their tables on the second day. There were quite of few non-conference attendees who seemed to visit with them as well, as MIT had lots of families visiting the campus. The attendees were a mix of veteran LSOs and some just starting out their careers in Laser Safety. There were LSOs from hospitals, universities, manufacturing, and military/government.
Overall it was a good value for the cost and there was something for everyone involved in laser safety. I would say it was a big success and hopefully I can attend more in the future.