Belgium Laser Pointer Incident
Most of you know about the laser incident at a music fest in Belgium over the summer.
After In-Depth and very analytical investigations, the following information has been released:
(From the ILDA E-mail list)
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To ILDA Members and interested laserists:
On August 4, press reports indicated that two persons were injured by lasers at the Tomorrowland Festival, held July 25-26 in Boom, Belgium. The reports implied that the festival's laser show was the cause of the injuries. One of the injured persons filed a police complaint.
On September 2, a meeting was held with the police, the mayor of Boom, health and safety officers, the festival organizers, and the laser show producer. During the meeting, it was concluded that the injuries were caused by laser pointers that had been misused by audience members. The laser show producer -- an ILDA Member -- was cleared in the matter. (I have kept the Member's name out of this discussion, since they were found to have done nothing wrong.)
There were a number of indications that the laser show was safe. First, only two persons were injured. While that is unfortunate, if there was a problem with a laser show, one would expect many more injuries. Two persons out of 90,000 attendees indicates the problem lies elsewhere.
In addition, the show used safe practices. Scan fail devices were used. The show was continuously monitored by the operators. Software "beam attenuation maps" were used to ensure that beam power was lower in audience areas. Calculations showed that the irradiance of the beams was at most about 50 mW/cm^2, at the point of closest audience access. At 20 meters into the audience, the irradiance was about 10 mW/cm^2. ILDA recommends 10 mW/cm^2 (the MPE) for shows in conservative venues like theme parks, churches, corporate events, etc. and 100 mW/cm^2 as the maximum for shows in places like discos, nightclubs, festivals. Thus, this show was well under ILDA-recommended maximum levels.
In contrast, witnesses saw a number of high-powered lasers being (mis)used by audience members. At an estimated power of 200 mW, a laser pointer would have an irradiance 20 to 100 times more powerful than the light show laser. This is why authorities concluded that the two injuries were due to laser pointer misuse.
A full description and analysis of the show is at http://www.laserist.org/2009-07_Belgian-incident.htm.
I want to thank Greg Makhov for his invaluable assistance in analyzing this incident.
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I say AGAIN.....there is ABSOLUTELY NO FU*KING REASON FOR ANYONE TO HAVE A 200mW pointer!!! PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!
YES, theyre fun. (so are explosives, but they are regulated).
YES, Laserists have fun with them (so do Gun enthusiasts with machine guns. but machine guns are regulated)
YES, they can be educational. (So can the Anarchists Cookbook, but there are better ways to become educated)
YES, a *few* companies are putting pretty little labels on them to say dont point at planes. (Its not even REMOTELY close to stopping anything)
YES, some responsible people use them. (MANY more irresponsible schmucks use them and abuse them and cause industry uproars).
YES, i own one, YES you own one. YES 99.9% of us and other laserists have one. (but the majority of the "general population" who purchases one uses them irresponsibly if not, dangerously.)
ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!!!
-Marc
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allthatwhichis
If I had to have a high power hand held, and had to take it out in public; getting a "conceled" hand held laser permit should not be considered too much for me to do, assuming I had to do these things. And yes, regulation of the suppliers would be needed also.
