UKC

I am looking for information on the safety of a green laser I was given for Christmas. It is this laser:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Green-Laser-Pointer-Pen-Professional-1mW-High-Pow...
It also says on the laser that it is "class IIIb product".
The wikipedia page;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety#Class_3B
seems to suggest that lasers of this class should be at minimum a lot more powerful than my 1mW version.

Can anyone who knows tell me what magnitude of dangers I am looking at for this product?
Also, if the danger is due to infrared radiation also in the beam, can I mitigate the dangers by strapping a glass/plastic directly onto the laser that will absorb this radiation? Subsiduary to this, would this cause horrible overheating of this glass/plastic bit with moderate use?

I did do a bit of research online but I couldn't easily find what I was looking for. Thanks for any help.

In reply to henwardian: I got a similar laser pointer for christmas and have also been trying to find out more about it.
One thing I found quite interesting - it doesn't 'charge' light retaining materials such as the glow in the dark material found on a pair of trainers I own. The red laser pointers however, do so instantly.
Not quite sure what this means though and sorry that it doesn't answer your questions!

RC

In reply to henwardian:
Safety tip number 1. dont point at your eye while turned on... not good.

Fun things you can do 1. point it at a match, and it should light it.
2. point it at a balloon and it should burst it.
3. get a row of balloons and point it at them and they will burst in a row.

Possibly fun things to do.
1. i think it can light steelwool so it can be a good first starter in the rain.

This is a lazer pointer, it does not produce radiation... that said dont eat it, that should be safety tip number 2.

In reply to henwardian:
I spent a year working with a class 4 laser, It was good fun, as it could burn though plastic but also highly dangerous.

During that time, one of the lab guys went to Thailand and came back with a few green laser pointers, 1mW on the side but a lot more powerful than that when tested. So don't trust the numbers for cheap stuff built abroad.

never point a laser at anyone, it is good practice in a similar way never pointing a gun, loaded or unloaded or made ready, is good practice.

The danger would not be from infra red. The laser light produced will come from a small laser diode, which is mono-chromatic. This means it only produces one tight band of wavelengths, which will be centred around green.

Strapping plastic of glass to the front will not only disperse the beam, meaning it spreads out and is not as visible from as long a distance, but it may also cause reflections beaming out at funny angles, potentially zapping anyone in the vicinity.

By all means use and enjoy the laser, but never shine it at anyone no matter how far away they are.

In reply to henwardian:

Silly question, but do any armies around the world use lazers in combat, other than pointing stuff out for ordinance and guns to blow up?

In reply to henwardian: A VERY REAL danger from these is that there have been well publicised instances of them being pointed, inadvertantly or otherwise, at aircraft with potentially dangerous consequences for aircrew.

In reply to henwardian: Thanks for the replies so far.
Smile: By radiation, I meant electromagnetic radiation which ranges from radio waves through light to gamma rays and everything in between.
BigYeti: How did you measure the power of the laser? Could I practically measure mine anywhere easily?
Lemming: I'm pretty sure they are only used for targetting purposes currently. I'm equally sure that DARPA will be funding research to find other uses for them
BigYeti: I believe the method of creating 532nm green light can be done cheapest by creating infrared light first and then modifying the wavelength, some of the information I read suggested that it was unintended infrared in the beam which caused the damage by heating the retina, or is this not correct?
Mypyrex: I am aware of the danger to aeroplanes but realistically unless you are either very close to an airport or trying deliberately, the chances of hitting the cockpit window of a plane are incredibly small.

In reply to henwardian:


I'd have thought that blinding your enemy with lazers would be an effective way of stopping them from harming you.

In reply to The Lemming:

There is this being tested

http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/

In reply to henwardian:

Somewhat stupidly...One day while setting up fibre optic networking I was looking into the fibres to tell the rx from the tx...It was red, so low frequency so not worried about eye cancer, *but* for the rest of the day I did have a few dots in my vision.

I'd say the danger is pretty low, from what I've read. Dan writes about the subject every now and again:

http://www.dansdata.com/nexus.htm
'...every "green diode" pointer is a "diode pumped solid state", or DPSS, laser. A high powered infrared diode shines into the back of one crystal, which in turn feeds another crystal, and green light comes out...'

'... if you'd like a frisson of danger from your handheld laser, 5mW-or-less units don't cut it. Stare into the beam and you'll damage your retina, eventually, but that's it for risks. Brief glances are less harmful than a similarly brief glance at the sun, and there's just not enough energy in the beam for it to interact with the macroscopic world in any of the exciting death-ray ways that all right-thinking people desire...'

1mW...Yeah...I wouldn't be worrying too much

In reply to henwardian:

Hmm, reading further down that dansdata link/article he goes quite deeply into the safety aspect of mW lasers. Well worth the read!

In reply to The Lemming:

I'd have thought that blinding your enemy with lazers would be an effective way of stopping them from harming you.

Not considered as a legal wepon: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Blinding_Laser_Weapons

In reply to MJ:

I bought one of these from ebay... 1 mW green on the label, actually measured 4mW green and about 25mW of IR (1064 nm) so total output of ~30mW which is certainly enough to do eye damage! They SHOULD have filters to remove the IR, but mine either didn't or it was useless. Also, you can often get more green out of them by tweaking the angle of the doubling crystal (hence converting more of the IR).

In reply to henwardian:


We had a device in the lab that measured output, I'm not too sure of any easy way to do it at home.


Sounds correct, if a higher powered IR beam is also present, this could be very damaging indeed if looked at directly or reflected off a shiny surface.

In reply to henwardian: Have you had a play with it on balloons and stuff? as I fancy one !!

In reply to henwardian:

How did you measure the power of the laser?

You will need something like a Molectron or a Power Wizard, neither of which are cheap!

In reply to Batcloud:

Why not test them on some CHAV's. Before exposing them to the lazer, test their eye sight first. And after exposure test eye sight again. Tell them that if their eyesight fails then they can clam some more CHAV benefits from the government.

In reply to The Lemming:

Or they could be tested on people who can't spell Laser!

In reply to Batcloud:

I've spelt it wrong?

In reply to The Lemming: Nice Christmas sentiment there.

In reply to Batcloud:
Yawn......

In reply to The Lemming:

This might give you a clue: -

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Don't feel too bad about it, I used to think the weapons in Sci Fi films were Razor Guns.

In reply to henwardian:

Other safety advice: do not strap it to a shark...

I'll steer clear of sharks, chavs and the CIA but thanks for the suggestions.

In reply to minimike:

This is worrying. Filtering out that IR beam is what I was meaning when I suggested strapping a plastic/glass widgjit on the front of it (though obviously absorbtion of IR would warm this part up, so that was what I was worried about also.
Thing is, I would like to be able to use it in a classroom full of kids for pointing at a whiteboard but frankly that just doesnt sound at all advisable