An endoscope light source safety system, including visible light transmitted along an illumination path, one or more sources for providing radiation along at least a portion of the illumination path, an optical element for combining the radiation from said one or more sources into the illumination path, an illumination attenuator connectable to the illumination path for receiving said visible light and the radiation, a reflector connected to said illumination attenuator for transmitting said visible light and returning at least a portion of the radiation, and one or more detectors for receiving the returned radiation from said reflector and for generating a signal indicative of the receipt of visible light by said illumination attenuator.