Field trials with low power lasers concerning the blink reflex

Laser belonging to class 2 emit in the visible part of the spectrum. The power is limited to 1 mW in the CW mode. Up to now the protection of the eyes has been supposed to be given by the blink reflex for incidentally intrabeam viewing in many regulations. In 3 field trials with 519 test persons we have shown that only 15.9% at 670 nm, 17.2% at 635 nm, and 20.3% at 532 nm had a blink reflex under laser irradiation. An analysis of the results showed neither significant differences concerning the age and the gender of the test persons nor whether they were wearer of glasses or right sighted. The frequent lack of the blink reflex demands organizational measures like instruction using laser class 2 in medical and other applications.