"My first eye injury" by Milan Karakaš

Hello Milan, and welcome to the forum. I for one am glad you published that article. Humans by nature are curious and hopefully articles like this will deter people from fulfilling their curiosity. I don't think you're an idiot for doing what you did, ignorant but not an idiot. The only true idiots here are the ones laughing at this misfortune. It often takes a lot of nerve to admit you've made a mistake, and I'm sure this was no exception, especially knowing how people are. I'm glad your eye has recovered somewhat, and I hope that it will continue to do so.

Geneticz said:

Anyone else notice how he called mWs microwatts ? ;D

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I dont think he is calling mW microwatts...i think he is trully speaking of uW (the 'u' represents a 'miu'). As a few miliwatt woundnt still be tolerable.


even if the laser was a few uW id prefer not to look into it...

better safe than sorry!

One time I and my friend found an old projector focusing lens. We tried to shine my laser through it but obviously we weren't wearing safety glasses, and suddenly I saw a bright flash near or into my eye. :cryyy: I was completely shitting my pants while searching for possible damages to my retina, but I couldn't find any black spots. I literally felt like shit for days and I was really paranoid for any kind of weird 'things' that I never noticed before. Now, 3 months later I still haven't noticed any damage, but I've become REALLY careful with my lasers after this experience. Nowadays whenever I'm been playing with my lasers I'm checking my eyesight for black spots, to be sure that everything is a'right. I've also bought safety glasses ofcourse.

Seriously, never do (non-predictable) 'experiments' without securing yourself first. I'm just lucky that I have no (noticable) eye damage.
Unfortunately some people have to learn this the hard way...

maurits150 said:

Seriously, never do (non-predictable) 'experiments' without securing yourself first. I'm just lucky that I have no (noticable) eye damage.
Unfortunately some people have to learn this the hard way...

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Yes, indeed. You are lucky, very lucky. And, yes - I learned this the hard way.
So, my idea is to share my lesson with others in order to prevent such mistakes, no matter by accident (more common), or intentionally (more unlikely, but hey, i did it). :angel:

---

According to the laser safety standards outlined in wikipedia, it is safe to look into a 390µW laser even with magnifying optics for pretty much as long as you like without damage.

i once played with 1 mW red and next day when i readed text from my computer, there where my eye focuced i just saw white, so i had to read head tilted side. luckily after few hours it dissapeared but then came terrible headaicd(did i spell that rigth:thinking
i was bit scared

GeGGuli said:

i once played with 1 mW red and next day when i readed text from my computer, there where my eye focuced i just saw white, so i had to read head tilted side. luckily after few hours it dissapeared but then came terrible headaicd(did i spell that rigth:thinking
i was bit scared

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-correct-read
-correct-focused
-correct-disappeared
-correct-headache

i dont mind those spell errors, as i might as well give lots and lots of them, but as u asked if u spelled "headache" correctly, i thought, well, the others cant hurt either.

BTW! Good Afternoon everyone

My laser accidents:

My first green pointer, I was experimenting with lenses and stuff, and a mirror fell. The beam very shortly hit me in the eye, so short the blink reflex wasn't even needed. Probably 1mw of green, max 2mw of IR.

My first green HeNe. This accident scared me the most. I already had a 55mW green, 70mW red and a 6W argon and pulsed YAG waiting to be setup. So, I though I was experienced enough. I pointed the laser across the room. Then I walked around to see the beam. At about 2m distance I picked something up from the floor, and the laser hit me in my right eye. I only saw very little light, it came from the side so it didn't even enter my eye directly, but I made a mistake. This was only 2mW, but it should be a habit never to bend over, this brings laser beams to eye level.

I now work with huge pulsed YAG laser and Ti:sapph femtosecond lasers at my university, and I'm glad I got some experience from my lower power lasers. One of the things: wear safety goggles pretty much always. Only setups with visible light that are well adjusted and cannot move can be considered safe. I only take off my goggles for class 3B visible lasers if the beam terminates safely right after the laser. Class 4 or invisible = always goggles on.

For goggles: visible class 3B lasers can go with non certified goggles, altough the higher (>200mW) end of 3B is pushing it. All goggles need proper OD ratings. IR and class 4 need to be certified, preferrably EN207, this says way more than ANSI 136.1. I use laservision goggles at my university, these have 7mm thick glass filters, this can withstand much more than plastic based filters. Everybody here takes laser safety serious, we all work with watts of power. We're nearly flawless as far as I know.

The saddest part of that article:

"let’s try again, to confirm what I saw"

:wtf:

daveindelaware said:

The saddest part of that article:

"let’s try again, to confirm what I saw"

:wtf:

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Yes, I know. This is the dumbest thing I did.

First attempt to stare at the laser beam is dumb enough. But second time is something like extreme curiosity. And, since I had intentional or accidental staring at various laser beams (HeNe, DYE laser, N2 laser...), no permanent damage occurs. So this time it surprises me. At first my thought is that this one will end without permanent damage, but I was wrong.

I wish to back in time. If someone invent time machine, let me know - so I will back in time and undo it.

If I undo it, then this will be not the subject of discussion on this forum any more, so not need to inventing time machine anymore. So, we will end in infinite loop of back and forward in time.

What a paradox.

:tired: