Actually, I wouldn't mention alpha, beta and gamma. Those are the ones that do cause cancer!nomiss wrote: She views radiation as something that causes cancer and does not understand that their are many types of radiation: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, ect.
Anything that radiates is radiation. The heater in your room emits heat radiation, the lightbulb emits light radiation and without the sun's radiation, you wouldn't last very long! By the way, I had a similar problem when my neighbour saw the Laser Radiation warning sign, she complained to the landlord that I had a nuclear reactor in my lab! While Bob is right to tell you to listen to the scientists, not your mother, your mother is a lot closer to you than any scientists. So, I'd find a way to explain that the sun emits radiation that makes all life grow. The laser is simply the same radiation in a somewhat smaller package. Actually, if you want to put it in perspective, Christmas lightbulbs give off more than 100 mW. An led fed off a 9V supply drawing 30mA will give off about 100mW. The main danger is the raw beam. You need to be careful when you're adjusting that, but an expanded beam is no more harmful than looking at a green traffic light.
As for goggles, Jeff is right, no holographers wear them. You can't see the laser beam with goggles on (no shinola, Watson!). This makes it very difficult to set up the beams. On the other hand, I've been to pro labs where they insist on safety goggles, for legal reasons I suspect. You might consider wearing them while you're shooting, after having set everything up, just to keep your family members happy. Besides which, wearing goggles and a lab coat makes you look like a real scientist! A word of warning, the raw 100mW laser beam may burn through goggles, so when manipulating the raw beam, I wouldn't wear them.