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Gov't Report: Laser Pointers Produce Too Much Energy, Pose Risk For the Careless
coondoggie writes "Commercial grade green and red laser pointers emit energy far beyond what is safe, posing skin, eye and fire hazards. That was the conclusion of a National Institute of Standards and Technology study on the properties of handheld lasers. The study tested 122 of the devices and found that nearly 90% of green pointers and about 44% of red pointers tested were out of federal safety regulation compliance."
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It's why we can't have nice things. Idiots point lasers at aircraft blinding the pilots and the .gov bans them. Nobody has any common sense.
I have mod points. The reign of terror begins now.
Obligatory xkcd http://what-if.xkcd.com/13/
Sometimes it's better not having signature
"We need more testing in this field, particularly on that white wall over there."
I saw this article earlier and it's a bit misleading. Buried much more deeply...
That whole "Class IIIa/3R" thing is a pretty big deal. Lasers of this class are pretty heavily regulated because of the danger they can potentially pose. The color of the laser is almost unimportant, except for the minor detail of how green lasers are generated by dividing infrared light in half, which makes them subject to a bit more regulation since infrared is not a visible emission; invisible emissions are more strictly regulated, since there's no blink reflex to save your eyes.
I wonder what percentage of commercial laser pointers are Class IIIa/3R?
For the record, I did some research on lasers, because we were going to incorporate one into one of our products...until we learned how heavily regulated they are, and went with a diode that pumps out like 50x as much wattage, but doesn't fall under regulations since the emissions aren't coherent. Throughout my research, I learned that no one - literally, no one - has ever reported being injured by a Class IIIa/3R laser. The danger posed by these emissions is more theoretical than practice.
:(){
are we supposed to fight the sharks?
Just claim to be a member of the NRA and any attempt by the gummint to lower power is infringing your 2nd amendment rights.
It's the NLA, the National LASER Association, and we do have a serious lobbying effort underway.
If the founding fathers had had lasers, then they'd have done fine without France's support.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
No. Fuck this shit. I move that every citizen of the USA shall receive from the government one glock 9 mm pistol, one box of hollow point ammunition, one multi-watt laser pointer, one... no, make that TWO extremely fucking dangerous magnets, and a big fucking bucket of fireworks, to do with as they please. In one year, the survivors can get together and discuss additional regulation. :-/
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The government regulators have no desire to prevent you from buying or selling higher power lasers. They do care when you lie to your customers and tell them the lasers are less dangerous than they actually are. They care when you use shoddy manufacturing that allows harmful IR to escape the casing, while again telling the customer that they are completely shielded against this. If these lasers worked as advertized, then there wouldn't be a problem. Alternately if they were sold as class 3B devices (which is what they effectively are) there would be no problem, as the purchasers would know the risks and could plan accordingly. But they weren't and the manufacturers/importers should be held responsible for their recklessness.
it seems the govt. figures we are all fucking idiots that can't be trusted with our own judgment to use anything more dangerous than a butter knife, or maybe those rounded edge scissors we all got in first grade
I think thats pretty accurate for how a very large number of people in the country should be treated. I definitely don't want a lot of people I know with a commercial laser, as I do like my eyesight. I have a 500 lumen flashlight (its really really bright in a tightly focused beam) and the number of people I told "don't point it at your face because its incredibly bright", that did exactly that is astounding. When I asked why? their response was its only a flashlight... I've seen several people do that with lasers too. Not to mention that is the governments targeted mentality with their current form of "education".
The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand. - Frank Herbert
As someone who has worked extensivly with class IIIb/IV lasers in the past (I was even licensed by the state of New York to do so) you can think of laser safety in this way:
Class i: Stare in to the beam until the end of time, no issues gaurenteed,
Class II: Stare in to the beam until the end of time, you might have some issues but probably not permanent,
Class IIIa: Your aversion reaction is fast enough for you to escape permanent damage.
Class IIIb/IV: You're fucked.
They did tests on animal eyes and eyes of people who were going to have them removed. They tested different power level until 50% of tests had damage then divided the power level by ten for the safety rating. So long as you're not an idiot (that's a stretch for most people) and you don't get your hands on some real class IIIb/IV toys you're probably not in any danger.
That being said, don't screw around with UV lasers. UV exposure is cumulative and you will get cataracts when you hit your individual exposure limit.