How 'bout "Your danger is Laserous"?
How 'bout "Your danger is Laserous"?
Yeah, that ought to make people look at least twice. I think they'd click a link like that.
We have cheap Chinese goggles costing $50. It is OD>=4, that is to say 0,01 percent power goes through. for example, 0.1mw will leak if the laser is 1W.
I put one goggle in the beam 120mw 473nm to read out 0.1mW. I see nothing. The 0.1mW might be the fluorescence induced by the laser. I see yellow-white in the plasticlike material of the goggle. When wearing it, i can not see the beam, but i can see yellowwhite spot on wall or on hand whatever stop the beam. I didnot mention, the goggle begins to melt if i stay it 2 seconds.
David
Lasever Inc.
www.lasever.com
Innovation manufacturer for DPSS Lasers Blue Green and Red
David,
At which wavelengths do your goggles block light?
I think this group could greatly benefit from more affordable laser protection. Personally I would like to have "RGB" goggles, thus blocking 660-650, 532 and 473 nm light and have some visibility inbetween. These would do for most of us (although some might have 635 red and/or 400- 457 nm blue, the wishlist could go on like blocking all IR).
Would it be possible to have something like 'RGB goggles' made affordable?
edit: with blocking I mean having high optical density, enough to protect.
Last edited by Zoof; 03-28-2007 at 01:10.
Jem, sounds like you know first hand how laser-like eye damage manifestates itself. I would be interested in knowing more about how the 'victims' experience this - what exactly do the holes in one's vision look like?
Besides educational info it might also help to really stress the point of safety.
About the guy with the broken pointer, there is the danger that we scared him away by saying "do not do this, it is dangerous" and he might be reading some place where his pointer is less dangerous - meaning where safety is not stressed as much. (just a thought)
In between trying to do some real work i'm searching through old issues of Ophthalology journals etc. So far i've only turned up a couple of interesting articles that relate to laser pointers and eye damage. If you're interested in this stuff it may be worth a read...
http://bjo.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/83/10/1164
Bear in mind that the above link was from a survey in 1999, before the days of DPSS!
http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/Me...nter_engl.html
Once I find an authoritative article on actual damage caused I will post either the article or a web link (if there is one).
Cheers
Jem
Just found another interesting link...
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2005-rst/2800.html
Last edited by Jem; 03-28-2007 at 01:59. Reason: Add link
I have a small blurry spot of damage to my left eye. It's not from a laser, but from examining a bright and unusual cloud as sun approached the edge. It took long enough that I was not aware that the brightness already reached dangerous levels before the cloud cleard the sun''s light path. The effect is a kind of dead pixel effect, blurry and small, slightly like a midge slowly flying at a range too close for focus. It's mildly irritating, at worst. The only reason it's not dead centre, and really annoying, is I always look at strong or suspect light sources without trying to focus exactly on them. That does two things, it keeps it out of the centre where detail is important, and it prevents the focus from being as damaging as it might have been.
We can't stress safety unless we say a thing is dangerous. And he probably was reading, he was logged in for a while last night.Besides educational info it might also help to really stress the point of safety.
About the guy with the broken pointer, there is the danger that we scared him away by saying "do not do this, it is dangerous" and he might be reading some place where his pointer is less dangerous - meaning where safety is not stressed as much. (just a thought)
I think Steve-o's "Your Danger Is Laserous" should be the thread title in the finished version. It focusses on the problem exactly, as concisely as the original statement, but has the kind of wordplay that makes people want to look further. It's perfect for getting attention.
EDIT:Nasty thought: Some cheapo green DPSS's are PULSED! Imagine what happens when some poor sod gazes into the little dim red light of one of those... If it hit their optic nerve they might lose that eye, totally, instantly, permanently. It would only take two or three cases of that level of injury after dissection to get all green pointers and cheap DJ systems banned in several countries and DPSS restricted to highly controlled OEM sales. Unless we want to risk most of our access being policed into oblivion, we're going to have to manage the risks and safety effectively ourselves. Better to jump than wait to be pushed.
Last edited by The_Doctor; 03-28-2007 at 03:36.
How about a visual aid?
They say a picture...
(Pardon my "artwork")
Last edited by steve-o; 03-28-2007 at 06:24.
Spec, are you there?
What do you think would be the best approach to laser safety guidelines for the laser newbie logging on here for the first time?
Steve