Retinal damage by optical radiation. An alternative approach to current, ACGIH-inspired guidelines

Background: The ACGIH guidelines for protection against retinal damage by optical radiation are often difficult to apply due to their lack of transparency. The less known guidelines by the Netherlands Health Council (HCN), dating from 1978 and updated in 1993, might offer a way out in many cases. Methods: A comparison is made of these guidelines, embedded in a short sketch of the history. They are illustrated by examples of applications. Results: In most cases the HCN guidelines produce results that hardly deviate from those obtained with the ACGIH guidelines but in some cases the results diverge and in other cases HCN gives an answer where ACGIH seems to fall short. Conclusions: The HCN guidelines form a good alternative to those of ACGIH. Keywords: blue light damage optical radiation radiation retinal burn lasers protectio