Couldn’t find an earlier thread on this 2000 column, so here goes…
Foreigner here, and I’m not following the debate closely, but there was some argument about if Tasers are covered by the right to bear arms?
So if laser pointers are actually dangerous, would they fall into the same debate?
I don’t think the science on low-power red pointers has changed all that much; they’re harmless in most scenarios because your blink reflex will kick in. You’re fine as long as you don’t intentionally stare right at the beam for long periods.
As mentioned in the column, powerful handheld lasers are available, but there’s been something of a crackdown. I have a 100 mW green that I got several years ago; it’s the size of a pen and will light a match. But while you can still get 100+ mW units, they tend to be larger now and require a safety interlock and other features. The cheapo Chinese units will be seized at the border.
And no, they aren’t considered arms :).
The little, red, handheld pointers are likely safe but the green ones can be – probably are – dangerous. The green lasers work by taking an infrared laser and doubling its frequency. The beam is passed through a filter that is supposed to eliminate the IR and let the green pass. The original (expensive) pointers worked pretty well, but the cheap Chinese knockoffs often have a filter that doesn’t work so well or even have none at all. The result is while the measured green output might be within specs to not require regulation, the totally invisible IR output is much, much higher and the IR will damage your retina just fine.
As a participant of Burning Man I volunteer as a Black Rock Ranger, the safety and mediation force at the event. One of our duties is to maintain a perimeter for the larger burns, the Man on Saturday, the Temple on Sunday, and anything else large that might be set alight that year. As such we are facing away from the flames and towards the crowd. As you can imagine, lasers are pretty popular at the event and were generally allowed until in 2014, a ranger was blinded in one eye and had her vision severely damaged in the other. Because of that, handheld lasers are banned outright and (usually more powerful) lasers mounted on art cars and art installations are inspected to ensure they cannot be pointed below the horizon.
The info in this year-2000 article is horridly outdated.
It is now quite easy to purchase a handheld 3500 milliwatt green laser, for about $200.
These new lasers are not only enormously more powerful, but have much better collimation than the 90’s tech pointers had.
That will not only cause temporary flash blindness, but will cauterize lines across your retina in under a millisecond.