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KIRK HOLDSAMBECK <kirkreba@mindspring.com> wrote in article
<74i7h0$3j1$1@camel0.mindspring.com>...
> Does anyone know how dangerous the hand held laser pointers are???
> My kids think it is safe as a play toy.
> thanks
> kirk

Now before everybody flames me, READ THE WHOLE POST.

 Take it away from the kids, its a potential eye hazard and way to get into
trouble.
Let them use it under supervision for science experiments from a library
book, not as a toy.

    The laser itself is designed to have only enough power that it will not
do damage provided the eye blinks, using its "aversion reponse" to bright
light, however some kids like the after images, and mentally hold the eye
open while shining the laser into it, its painful, but kids are kids and do
such things on a dare or to be cruel etc  Thats when the danger starts of
minor to major eye damage, or at minimum a bad case of eye strain.Odds of
minor damage are probably high  on a long FORCED exposure.  There has yet
to be a proven case of this, but a couple of cases suggest some damage may
be possible with LONG FORCED EXPOSURES with no blinking.

Again, a brief flash in the eye from across teh room is not a hazard, just
results in a headache in some cases, or strain from when you rub the eye
too hard when a hit hurts, but does no damage.

  1,454,567 posts are suddenly going to appear to tell you lasers less then
10-15 milliwatts are not hazards,And most of these will come from people
WHO DONT REALLY KNOW OR ARE GUESSING. Pointers have poor quality control
and poor design, its possible for a hot one or defective circuitry to slip
through the cracks and stay lasing.  Most people have never looked at the
research to used create teh exposure standards, its designed for a very low
probablity of damage, not a absolute eye safe device.

In most cases the pointers beam quality is so poor that focusing it to a
damage level is very unlikely to nearly impossible, especially without
holding the eye perfectly still, something that doesnt happen without
anestesia, but again, why take chances.

Steve

Yes and No.  Any laser pointer has the potential to blind someone.  On the
practical side, the laser pointer needs to be perfictally focused on the
retina, and because of the natural responses of the eye, this won't
normally happen.  The official definition states that eye damage can only
be self-induced as trying to get the 5mm wide beam into a 2mm narrowed
pupil for several seconds is near impossible for anyone else to do.  They
are perfictally safe so long as all the people using them are aware of the
dangers of laser light.  A flash in the eye with such a low power laser
will not do any lasting harm.  From more than a few feet away, a laser
pointer in the eye will only feel like getting flashed with high-beams on a
car for a few seconds, not plesant, but not harmful.

KIRK HOLDSAMBECK wrote:

> Does anyone know how dangerous the hand held laser pointers are???
> My kids think it is safe as a play toy.
> thanks
> kirk

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