Note ·

A laser safety officer is a program, not a title

Naming an LSO satisfies the box on the form. What the standard is actually asking for is the structure behind the name.

Appointing a laser safety officer is straightforward and frequently where it stops. Someone competent gets the title, and the organization considers the requirement met.

What the standard is asking for is not a person. It is a set of things that person is supposed to be doing — classification kept current, control measures documented and matched to the hazard, training delivered and recorded, incidents captured, the program reviewed on a stated cycle. The title is how you assign responsibility for that. It is not a substitute for it.

The practical test is what happens if the named LSO leaves. If the answer is that the organization loses its laser safety program, there was not one — there was a careful person.

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