From the UK Daily Mail: "Doctors have warned children could suffer serious eye injuries from laser pointer pens, after a teenager burned his eyes with one. The boy had bought the pointer over the internet according to a case reported by the British Medical Journal. Dr Kimia Ziahosseini and colleagues from the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Manchester Royal Eye Hospital treated the youngster. In a letter to the journal the specialists said he suffered dark spots, known as central scotomas after accidentally shining the laser light into his eyes. The laser also cut the sharpness of his vision by half. Tests revealed burns to the surface of the eye and disturbances to the retina - the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Two months later, his clarity of vision improved but some retinal damage remained. The doctors warned lasers may only seem to leave an 'after-image' but they can actually cause permanent eye damage and 'visual loss in later years'. The lasers, which are usually small in size, battery-operated and hand-held, generally emit either red or green light. According to the Health Protection Agency (HPA), laser pointers have been used by workers when giving presentations for many years with no reports of incidents. Laser pointers sold in the UK should be classified in accordance with the current British Standard on laser safety, the HPA said."