Laws on laser pens

[Shoseki]

But what relevance does his blindness have to a debate on laser pointers?

Was he blinded by a laser pointer? I guess not...Or he would have mentioned it.

*n

He has *one* eye... the lasers are becoming more powerful and being wielded by some idiots, you don't think he would be afraid of losing his other eye?

Did I miss something?

 

[Energize]

Wear polarised glasses.

Banning lasers would be pointless as laser pens can easily be created from dvd drives, plus this country already has enough restrictions on our lives as it is. The laser diodes in hvd drives are in fact 1W, so excellent for burining things.

Luckily for blind people bionic eyes have already been created.

 

[penski]

He has *one* eye... the lasers are becoming more powerful and being wielded by some idiots, you don't think he would be afraid of losing his other eye?

I'm not afraid of losing my sight to some rogue laser pointer...Nor am I afraid of being hit by a bus...Or getting stung by a wasp, swelling up and dying. My point is that I don't see what partial blindness has to do with this thread unless it was caused by a laser pointer.

I'm still waiting for a definitive 'This man had a laser pen shone in his eye and is now blind' report. There are loads about people being uncomfortable and suffering temporary sight issues which alleviate themselves in a matter of minutes but these are invariably from shock-and-awe news sources.

*n

 

[Hugogo]

try shining one at a military helicopter as it flys over head. Im sure thats legal .

 

[Aod]

Out of interest, are there any stats relating to the number of cases of blindness or irreversible sight damage due to laser pens? For all the talk of damage, i haven't heard of a single case.

me. I have a noticeable dark spot in my right eye from a laser, caused instantaneously by a weak (less than 5mW) laser that was shone at me by a friend.

this dark spot is distracting and is never going to go away.

 

[Red and White]

me. I have a noticeable dark spot in my right eye from a laser, caused instantaneously by a weak (less than 5mW) laser that was shone at me by a friend.

this dark spot is distracting and is never going to go away.

is he still your mate?

 

[Aod]

is he still your mate?

yes. it was a mistake on his part, where the beam was reflected off a small mirror.

 

[Teslahed]

Lasers above 5mW CAN damage an eye with extended exposure. Practically speaking this means several seconds of direct exposure, which is hard to manage at distance because of the way your hands naturally shake slightly so that the beam doesn't target the same exact point for long enough.

Even laser pointers of 10mW are unlikely to do much more than dazzle you unless someone forces you to look at the beam for several seconds at close range.

The American army classifies all lasers below 50mW as 'dazzling' lasers rather than 'blinding' lasers on the basis of what damage will be caused by brief exposure.

Lasers above 100mW can pop balloons and cut black electrical tape and would do your eyes real damage if they were exposed to this for more than a fraction of a second. The obvious solution to this problem is not to point them at peoples eyes.

You can buy kitchen knives legally that are capable of doing much more damage to a persons eyes or other body parts cheaper than a 100mW laser would cost.

To put this in perspective, if you go to a nightclub the lasers they have on display there will range from 10mW to 100mW depending on the venue size and the colour of laser (green ones don't need to be as powerful as red ones because the eye is more sensative to green)

If you go to a large outdoor concert they may have lasers on display that range from 100mW up to a watt or so.

Lasers like this are set up by professionals in such a way that they shoot over the heads of the crowd so that no one gets blinded.

I'm currently in the process of building a 200mW laser from a DVDRW. I intend to use this for various scientific experiments as well as trying to build as laser scanner so I can put on light shows at musical events. I am sensible enough not to shine it in peoples eyes.

 

[pitchfork]

not really a necessity for any of those people are they.

Neither is a computer to us really.
I use mine in presentations anyway.

Also laser sights on paintball/ airsoft guns or even air rifles, they're useful.

 

[Aod]

Lasers above 5mW CAN damage an eye with extended exposure. Practically speaking this means several seconds of direct exposure, which is hard to manage at distance because of the way your hands naturally shake slightly so that the beam doesn't target the same exact point for long enough.

Even laser pointers of 10mW are unlikely to do much more than dazzle you unless someone forces you to look at the beam for several seconds at close range.

The American army classifies all lasers below 50mW as 'dazzling' lasers rather than 'blinding' lasers on the basis of what damage will be caused by brief exposure.

Lasers above 100mW can pop balloons and cut black electrical tape and would do your eyes real damage if they were exposed to this for more than a fraction of a second. The obvious solution to this problem is not to point them at peoples eyes.

no, no, no, no, no, no. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
this is complete rubbish, and attitudes like this can cause irreversible eye damage to someone.

 

[penski]

Lasers above 5mW CAN damage an eye with extended exposure. Practically speaking this means several seconds of direct exposure, which is hard to manage at distance because of the way your hands naturally shake slightly so that the beam doesn't target the same exact point for long enough.

Even laser pointers of 10mW are unlikely to do much more than dazzle you unless someone forces you to look at the beam for several seconds at close range.

It's for exactly that reason that I'd be willing to call shens on Aod.

As an aside, I was born with partially calcified lenses and have a few 'black' spots....I never notice them and they have ZERO effect on my life. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the older I get, the more my brain 'compensates' for the missing information.

*n

 

[penski]

no, no, no, no, no, no. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
this is complete rubbish, and attitudes like this can cause irreversible eye damage to someone.

I don't think your font size fully illustrates just how serious you are.

*n

PS: I find it interesting that those who work with LASERs on a daily basis regard LASER pointers as gimmicks/tools that pose no real risk...

 

[Kol]

PS: I find it interesting that those who work with LASERs on a daily basis regard LASER pointers as gimmicks/tools that pose no real risk...

Quite.

first thing i found. dont see how its any less relevant because of its age

The fact is does little to enforce your sweeping generalisation. I'll reiterate my question, do you know of any substantial peer reviewed work into this? Before you ask, yes I do have a reasonable knowledge of the eye physiologically, I had to study it at length, along with the ear and any other sense you wish to discuss.

EDIT -

A quick search on pubmed (peer reviewed and funded scientific research at respected insitutions) led me to this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/e...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

RESULTS: The scientific literature finds that laser eye injuries are uncommon from use of nonindustrial lasers. Furthermore, an eye injury from a regulated Class 2 or Class 3A by a transient sweep across the line of vision does not result in injury, but injury can occur with a direct intentional prolonged exposure.

Feel free to scour pubmed even more for results if you wish. I've found at least 20 in the few minutes I've been searching and have browsed a couple of the full papers (if you cannot access them I can gladly send you the journals) to read further into it.

From the above paper, saying injury can occur with direct intentional prolonged exposure, an example of this would be:

For actual damage to occur, viewing, times need to exceed approximately 10 seconds. Exposures of this duration would require the person being lased to cooperate by holding fixation on the laser beam.

This same paper goes on to say:

RESULTS: Few, if any, documented cases of permanent retinal damage caused by laser pointers could be found.

 

[Red and White]

the whole argument of it being used as a pointer is pathetic, you could do that with an extremely low powered device. no need at all for anything thats remotely dangerous.

 

[Kol]

What? The pointers we're discussing are low powered. The scientific evidence above even confirms this. The kind of pointer the 'child at West Ham' used is indubitedly a class2/3 device which, as the research has shown a transient sweep will cause no harm. Unless this child was at a close distance with one of these footballers heads fixed in a position shining a high powered laser for prolonged periods in a fixed position it will NOT have done more than dazzle him.

You said the above guys argument was weak, but yours is is even less so. Why are you trying to disagree with the evidence and facts? To be honest, I'm just going to leave the 'argument' here. I've made the point, I've offered scientific evidence and studies and the figures don't lie. If, somehow you know more than those in the field then you're clearly in the wrong job.

 

[pitchfork]

the whole argument of it being used as a pointer is pathetic, you could do that with an extremely low powered device. no need at all for anything thats remotely dangerous.

True but you don't need a £500 watch to tell the time, even so, it makes you feel more important.

 

[Red and White]

True but you don't need a £500 watch to tell the time, even so, it makes you feel more important.

dont even get me started on watches

 

[Hyper]

I remember trying to buy one as a kid but getting knocked back because you had to be 16.

Ohhh the days

 

[Energize]

the whole argument of it being used as a pointer is pathetic, you could do that with an extremely low powered device. no need at all for anything thats remotely dangerous.

In any case just because something can be dangerous doesn't mean it should be banned.

 

[ArmyofHarmony]

laser pens are very useful, although I agree it's worrying so many chavs have them


In year 8, on our school trip to france all of us bought them from those men under the Eifel Tower (who sell tonnes of low quality, random goods)... they all got taken by the teacher lol