LSO Workshop: Incident Response & Post Exposure Evaluation: Building a Modern Laser Injury Protocol

Industrial and manufacturing environments using Class 3B and Class 4 lasers often struggle with inconsistent approaches to incident response, injury documentation, and post exposure evaluation. While standards such as ANSI Z136.1 require incident investigation, they offer limited guidance on how organizations should structure these processes or coordinate effectively with medical providers. This paper presents a modern, structured protocol designed to strengthen the consistency and quality of industrial laser injury response. It integrates rapid incident intake, privacy aligned injury documentation, and proportional investigation methods grounded in established risk assessment principles. The protocol also addresses common gaps in medical coordination by outlining practical strategies for engaging healthcare professionals and obtaining essential, nonconfidential information needed for technical analysis. By combining immediate response actions, structured documentation workflows, and a scalable investigation model, this framework provides industrial facilities with a clear, practical approach to improving readiness, supporting worker safety, and enhancing the overall effectiveness of their written laser safety programs.

Randy Paura is a Professional Engineer and University of Waterloo graduate with a lifelong career in special purpose machine design and build for industrial manufacturing. His work has supported major automotive, aerospace, and heavy equipment production facilities, with a strong focus on laser based materials processing and safety. Randy is an active contributor to the ANSI Z136 Accredited Standards Committee for laser safety through multiple subcommittees, and he also participates in the American Welding Society’s D1N Titanium Structures and C7C Laser Beam Welding and Cutting committees.  He has delivered workshops at ICALEO on laser weld quality monitoring and aluminum welding, and has presented at the Automotive Laser Applications Workshop on materials processing. Recent activities include presentations at the Canadian Radiation Protection Association on Canada’s laser safety regulatory landscape and industrial laser risk assessment. Randy also presents at the International Laser Safety Conferences and was an invited speaker for handheld laser safety at the 2026 Nordic Welding Expo.