Laws on laser pens

HaX said:
As someone who is already blind in one eye, I have to say that I find the recent developments in the laser pen market rather disturbing.

When laser pens first came out, most of them were only 0.5 or 1 MW, and would only blind people if they were exposed to the beam for a prolonged period of time.

Now there are 10 MW models available on various web and auction sites, capable of burning/cutting through paper etc. The effect of someone shining a 10 MW laser pen into your eye would be instant retinal obliteration and blindness.

Very worrying IMHO.
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Yes, it's pedantic, but it's small m, for milliwatt, not megawatt :p

If you could get a 10MW laser pointer on the market, I'd be very, very worried, especially considering that one of the reactors at Sellafield used to produce 50MW :p

I was gifted a 50mW green one a while ago. Pretty nifty for pointing things out that are far away, obviously. Also very useful if you're into stargazing and you're trying to point something out to someone else, as you can see the beam etc.

Also, I hate to **** on your bonfire, but a 50mW pointer can't burn paper or black binbags, let alone a 10mW. But don't get me wrong, prolonged exposure can damage the eye.

Obviously I'm sensible with it, I know it's not the kind of thing that you take with you every day, but rather only when you know you're going to be needing it/using it for an actual purpose. But I do agree there needs to be some kind of regulation put into effect on them. You can actually import 350mW ones if you look carefully, which are seriously dangerous.
 
FosterK said:
Also, I hate to **** on your bonfire, but a 50mW pointer can't burn paper or black binbags, let alone a 10mW. But don't get me wrong, prolonged exposure can damage the eye.
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wrong. 50/1000 watts of coherent light at any wavelength will cause instantaneous and irreperable damage to your retinas.

in the amount of time it take to activate your blink-reflex, severe damage will have been done, resulting in a considerable loss in visual acuity in that eye.
 
Red and White said:
so if they arent a necessity that means im right theres no need for them at all.

toys for chavs
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As others have said they have their uses in things like demonstrations and lectures.

They can also be very handy for table top games, especially if you're playing with a line of sight rule and need to be able to show that a model can indeed see another one ;).
 
Red and White said:
so if they arent a necessity that means im right theres no need for them at all.

toys for chavs
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Very little in life is essential but I wouldn't say that meant there wasn't a need for it! Car's are not essential as the vast majority of us could use public transport, most food/drink is not essential as we could survive on water and some kind of nutrient mush, the list goes on....
 
I completely agree that laser pens should be much more strongly regulated. People use them in lectures but completely unnecessarily - other lecturers do a better job using a stick or their hands. Laser pens are used to bully people and some of them are very dangerous. At the very least those that are capable of damaging eyesight should be banned.
 
A ban would be totally ineffective, lasers are used too widely and in too many applications. While banning the sale of laser pens as such (high intensity LEDs would be reasonable pointer substitutes, but then you're back into the same argument of damaging brightness, albeit at a decreased level) would stop "miscreants" buying them on the cheap, there's still a plentiful source of lasers in all sorts of modern applications.
 
Aod said:
wrong. 50/1000 watts of coherent light at any wavelength will cause instantaneous and irreperable damage to your retinas.

in the amount of time it take to activate your blink-reflex, severe damage will have been done, resulting in a considerable loss in visual acuity in that eye.
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Indeed, it's very naive to think otherwise. Why laserpens about about 5mW havn't been banned is beggers belief.

Burnsy
 
PinkPig said:
I completely agree that laser pens should be much more strongly regulated. People use them in lectures but completely unnecessarily - other lecturers do a better job using a stick or their hands. Laser pens are used to bully people and some of them are very dangerous. At the very least those that are capable of damaging eyesight should be banned.
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Again, when you have a projector sceen that is 5m high and already 1 m off the ground and several meters wide, what would you use to point things out instead? They are perfectly practical way of doing this, there is nothing unnecessary about it.

Though i agree that anything over 10mW seems excessive (strokes his 20mW laster :p). The biggest problem with a ban is that people will just mod them instead and removing the UV filter..etc is far more dangerous.

*edit* Why do people remove these filters, does it make the output higher?
 
I was extremely concerned when there was a thread on here about making laser pens out of DVD burners. That is not only stupidly dangerous and irrisponsible but potentially life destroying.

Burnsy
 
PikeyPriest said:
Again, when you have a projector sceen that is 5m high and already 1 m off the ground and several meters wide, what would you use to point things out instead? They are perfectly practical way of doing this, there is nothing unnecessary about it.
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I would suggest that doing it in software is a much more sensible (and less awkward) solution. In any case there are few enough places with such big projection screens that this could easily be regulated and isn't reason to have them available for any fool who thinks it would be cool to buy one.
 
Red and White said:
so if they arent a necessity that means im right theres no need for them at all.

toys for chavs
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cars aren't necessary, every drink apart from water isn't necessary. Showers aren't necessary. computers aren't necessary.

Indeed, if you are giving a presentation on a large screen to a big audience then a laser pointer is a must. Anyone flaffing around with a computer mouse will not be giving a good presentation.
 
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D.P. said:
Indeed, if you are giving a presentation on a large screen to a big audience then a laser pointer is a must. Anyone flaffing around with a computer mouse will not be giving a good presentation.
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custom mouse pointer icon and one of those Wii style air mice.
problem solved.
 
D.P. said:
cars aren't necessary, every drink apart from water isn't necessary. Showers aren't necessary. computers aren't necessary.

Indeed, if you are giving a presentation on a large screen to a big audience then a laser pointer is a must. Anyone flaffing around with a computer mouse will not be giving a good presentation.
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thats the weakest argument ive ever seen
 
PikeyPriest said:
Again, when you have a projector sceen that is 5m high and already 1 m off the ground and several meters wide, what would you use to point things out instead? They are perfectly practical way of doing this, there is nothing unnecessary about it.

Though i agree that anything over 10mW seems excessive (strokes his 20mW laster :p). The biggest problem with a ban is that people will just mod them instead and removing the UV filter..etc is far more dangerous.

*edit* Why do people remove these filters, does it make the output higher?
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Theres videos on the net about how to rig lasers to a much higher output. This makes them a lot more dangerous as the IR radiation given out is much higher. They can also break much easily and eats batteries.

Whoever was shining one at drogba must have been caught because people must have been able to see the beam. I agree they are pointless but the bean at night looks cool and is good for pointing out stars.

I was going to get 2 and turn them into laser poi with a diffuse ball at each end, but i decided against it because of the high power and fact i dont really know how to make an appropriate diffuse ball
 
Red and White said:
thats the weakest argument ive ever seen
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In all fairness, your side of the debate (rather than argument) has hardly had any strong points except weak sweeping generalisations. In any case, much like that and the posters probably very tongue in cheek comparison to your analogy, it's just like saying anything can be abused by chavs. Take mobile phones, necessity (by your reasoning)? Nope... just used by chavs for prank calling emergency services.

Which we both know isn't the case, much like the laser pens. Don't let a minority cloud your view.
 
Werewolf said:
They can also be very handy for table top games, especially if you're playing with a line of sight rule and need to be able to show that a model can indeed see another one ;).
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*points*

SPOD!

On topic, my gf's laser peak pulses at 20MW.

She wins.

*n
 
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