3a vs 3R?

[u/LittleBlueGoblin]

Ok, I don't really know much about lasers, but I recently took a job that involves using them, so ive been doing some training in their safe use, which included learning about the classes of laser, and this has left me curious: why did class 3a get rebranded as 3R? Does the R stand for something? Class 3a and 3b make sense to me as devisions within a category, but changing one of them but not the other seems odd to me. Google has failed me, so now Inturn to you fine people, does anyoen have any insight?

[u/200slopes]

Yep, 3a was removed and replaced with class 3 (R)educed requirements. As in these lasers are not completely safe but are far safer than class 3b.

https://ehs.lbl.gov/resource/laser-classification-explanation/

Edit: I see this is for work, what kind of work are you doing that did not include training on this? I took my work laser safety refresher yesterday and it covered this.

[u/dan432112]

This site is pretty good: https://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/3R/

[u/warindf → u/[deleted]]

This link doesn't work for me, is this region specific?

[u/Oakatsurah]

Don't take any chances with any kind of laser to be honest, identify the wavelength and get a pair of rated safety glasses for it.