Disclosed is an endoscope light source safety system (50) including visible light (52) transmitted along an illumination path (54) a source (58) for providing radiation along at least a portion of the illumination path (54) an illumination attenuator (62) connectable to the illumination path (54) for receiving said visible light (52) and the radiation a first reflector (64) connected to said illumination attenuator (62) for reflecting at least a portion of the radiation received by said illumination attenuator (62) a combiner (60) for combining the radiation from said source (58) into the illumination path (54) and a detector (66) for receiving at least a portion of the radiation reflected from said first reflector (64) and for generating a signal indicative of the receipt of visible light (52) by said illumination attenuator (62).
