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Danger of Low Powered Green Laser Pointers

mega

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Jul 28, 2008
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I wanted to find out what are the dangers of low powered laser pointers.  I ordered one that's 5mw but it's classified as IIIB.  So I read the big difference between IIIA and IIIb and got quite scared.  I just don't want one accident blinding me for life.  The pointer I got is a key chain and has no safety lock.
I looked all over the forum and I could only find discussions of lasers 100mw and up.
Please, kindly explain the difference, thank you.
 





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Nov 2, 2007
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You shall not need to worry. Even if lasers are 5.1mW they're classified as IIIb. It's like a rule. The peak power is also taken in account.
Anyway : class I : <1mW
class II </= 1mW , exposed beam
1mW<class IIIa<5mW
5mW</=class IIIb<500mW
Class IV>500mW
 
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Jun 13, 2007
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If it is 5mW than you will be fine. An accidental hit in the eye would do minimal damage at that power.
 

mega

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Jul 28, 2008
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Could a low powered laser pointer with no Infrared filter emit more IR light then what it's stated as overall output?  (Considering that IR is invisible to the eyes and could possibly peak at double of the overall output).
If so, how much IR light is "non-destructible" to the eyes.  Also does the IR emits from the beam itself or from the dot?
And the last question is how can I measure IR?  :p
Thank you for patience at explaining all these questions!
 
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Aug 25, 2007
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The IR will generally not exit the laser collimated in a beam light the green beam; instead it will be like a flashlight, a "cone" of light, if you will. To measure it, eh, that's tough. You can often "see" it with digital cameras, where they often detect the IR (seems to be more true with lower quality cameras as well, think web cam and cell phone cam).
 

mega

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Jul 28, 2008
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Interesting stuff. Do you guys know anything about laser pointer causing a sneezing attacks? Supposedly it has something to do with over stimulating optical nerve inside of an eye.
I played around with a green 5mW pointer. Next day I felt realy bad. Don't know if that was due to a laser or I was just overworked. Anyway I just wondered what else other then looking straight into the beam can really mess up the health.
 

mega

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Jul 28, 2008
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Here's where I dug up the info about laser safety. Pretty interesting.
All you need to do is copy this link since I haven't posted 10 times yet and the system doesn't let me post the links.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety
 




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