FDA took me laser :(

Re: CDRH took me laser

I just took a look at Nova to see what they call their Lasers and found this "Discover our X-Series compact portable"

Could that really be the difference, described as a pointer >5mW Illegal, a compact portable >5mW Legal?

I can feel your pain !
I am sorry for you loss :cryyy:

Jim

never got answer about if the batt was included??-- why make testing any easier for them. I get the JETLASERs sent without both the batteries AND the keys and sometimes no tail caps-- making testing very hard.... BTW I will need to rethink allowing my friends in Canada to do my GBs---sry--- Gray can ship to you.

i would think, if anything , a list of shippers may be kept but for what you ordered there is prolly no blacklist with you on it.

Although I never ordered more green pointers from my China Ebay seller I have gotten many more w/o any probs from China.

This is what I learnt from watching Border Patrol (US TV series) which gives an internal insight into this..

Customs do random checks on a very small percent of items that come through, and non-standard, odd, rare and potentially illegal items attract them. They then put them through an x-ray machine like you get at airports, and if the description doesn't match what's inside, they will open it and check.

That letter is stupid, why are they trying to justify the seizure of the item by mentioning UK & Aus laws? It has no bearing here what so ever. Your taxes pay these guys, I'd be tempted to go with the first option but make sure you can backup what you're saying.

hakzaw1 said:

never got answer about if the batt was included??-- why make testing any easier for them. I get the JETLASERs sent without both the batteries AND the keys and sometimes no tail caps-- making testing very hard.... BTW I will need to rethink allowing my friends in Canada to do my GBs---sry--- Gray can ship to you.

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He says in Post #9 they did send along the batteries & charger, so I would assume he did order them all together.

magmabeam said:

This is what I learnt from watching Border Patrol (US TV series) which gives an internal insight into this..

Customs do random checks on a very small percent of items that come through, and non-standard, odd, rare and potentially illegal items attract them. They then put them through an x-ray machine like you get at airports, and if the description doesn't match what's inside, they will open it and check.

That letter is stupid, why are they trying to justify the seizure of the item by mentioning UK & Aus laws? It has no bearing here what so ever. Your taxes pay these guys, I'd be tempted to go with the first option but make sure you can backup what you're saying.

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That's probably because the Queen Bee "rules" them too, time to pull away from the Monarchy. Glad we fought the British off years ago too, otherwise we'd have VAT and all those higher taxes too. :evil:

ElectroMagneticFreak said:

EDIT: BlueBumbleBee, Have you had trouble with any other supplier than DX? Polonium who did you order from, are you sure yours has been seized too?

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I ordered my laser from WL dare I say. When I finally got a tracking number I tracked it to Vancouver Customs. 3 weeks had gone by and the tracking number had expired so I desided to call and see what I could do.
The customs officer that I talked to was very nice and I told him exactly what the contents of my package was. He said that it was illegal to import lasers into Canada. I told him that I use my lasers in a safe manner and that I had all the apporopreate safty glasses for all the spectrums that I own.
He told me that if it was up to him he would send me my laser but it had been handed over to the FDA for review and that there was not much I could do.
Long story short, I contacted WL and said I had not received my laser. To my surprise they re-sent my order so I got my laser in the end

Polonium, I'm glad it worked out for you in the end. The policy of Wicked Lasers to ensure delivery even with customs issues is actually pretty commendable despite all the negative things about them. I wonder if their pricing is higher to account for all the free replacements they send out to try and get it through customs. If they're on a blacklist though, how did the second laser get through while the first one was stopped? Better to not ask too many questions I guess.:shhh:

BlueBumbleBee, I'm happy to hear this hasn't happened to you very often. It makes me mad what you have had to go through.

Did you think about mentioning to customs the fact that there are lasers over 5mW sold in Canada by Laserglow, and that they are sold legally in Canada as handheld lasers with no explicit purpose defined? It does seem that the pointer description is part of the problem. But it seems like it is just semantics, laser hobbyists know they aren't going to use a 150mW handheld laser as a "pointer." To seize something based on terminology used by Chinese companies converting to English, seems a bit ridiculous. Maybe the Chinese sellers don't realize the significance about western legal interpretation distinguishing between using the words pointer or a handheld laser. It seems a bit silly to assume if its labeled "pointer" that any and all importers would be unaware to not use it as such and that a 150mW laser is going to be accidentally used in presentations.

yeah, just mailed the letter out today
hope they leave me along now... :/
just keeping you all updated

ElectroMagneticFreak said:

Did you think about mentioning to customs the fact that there are lasers over 5mW sold in Canada by Laserglow, and that they are sold legally in Canada as handheld lasers with no explicit purpose defined?

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Somebody has already brought that to their attention, and guess what...

Laserglow Technologies - Handheld Lasers, Alignment Lasers and Lab / OEM Lasers

Check the section called "Country-Specific Import Regulations."

I can't get into the details about this, suffice to say that Health Canada has started cracking down on consumers who are buying >5mW lasers. We're still trying to find out the specific policies. When we know, you'll know.

Just checking...

LaserGlow Policies said:

In the USA: All of LASERGLOW’S laser products designated for sale into the United States are certified as compliant with FDA regulations, unless they are O.E.M. components, in which case they are exempt from these regulations.

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That means that as long as we who live in the US pick a <5mW pointer or any handheld it is perfectly OK, right? Since all the handhelds, as defined as handheld by LaserGlow, are FDA compliant and all the pointers below 5mW are FDA compliant. It is only the pointers above 5mW which one should not pick.

LaserGlow Policies said:

In Canada: Consumers are not permitted to purchase lasers classified as Class 3B or higher, as per Health Canada regulations. You may only purchase a high-powered laser on behalf of an organization (company or educational institution) which has an established laser safety policy and a designated Laser Safety Officer. If you are purchasing a high-powered laser in Canada, we may ask you to provide proof that you have a satisfactory laser safety policy. Laserglow is legally obligated to ensure that the purchaser has an acceptable level of safety knowledge, and is not a "consumer" as defined by Health Canada.

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Wow, I thought you guys had better laser laws than we do down here, not worse! You can't even buy your own stuff! This means that in Canada individuals cannot legally buy any laser greater than 5mW, no matter the safety features?! Does that mean that Canadian individuals cannot even buy OEM equipment? That would mean you're not even allowed to make your own lasers!

Sigurthr said:

Just checking...



That means that as long as we who live in the US pick a <5mW pointer or any handheld it is perfectly OK, right? Since all the handhelds, as defined as handheld by LaserGlow, are FDA compliant and all the pointers below 5mW are FDA compliant. It is only the pointers above 5mW which one should not pick.



Wow, I thought you guys had better laser laws than we do down here, not worse! You can't even buy your own stuff! This means that in Canada individuals cannot legally buy any laser greater than 5mW, no matter the safety features?! Does that mean that Canadian individuals cannot even buy OEM equipment? That would mean you're not even allowed to make your own lasers!

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I sure hope not...... I never buy lasers but I build them a lot and I've gotten some 2W diodes here and hosts and heatsinks but that better not change....... At least I hope not

-Anthony

AnthoT said:

I sure hope not...... I never buy lasers but I build them a lot and I've gotten some 2W diodes here and hosts and heatsinks but that better not change....... At least I hope not

-Anthony

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BoostDriver

You gonna have any of those soon?

Yup I'm expecting some in 1-2 weeks just waiting on parts.
And BTW I don't update my site as regularly as my thread so check my signature for more updates as I'll only update my site again once they are available and I'll update my site about once a month

-Anthony

Event_Horizon, thanks for the link.

I apologize in that I thought Laserglow products were free to purchase by any Canadian citizen including individuals who are responsible hobbyists. I really hope there will be some way to allow scientifically minded and safety conscious hobbyists to purchase these for use in a safe and controlled manor within their own homes. It really sucks that responsible individuals interested in lasers for personal experimentation and research etc. get shut out of the equation. I always think about the many individuals throughout history who became famous for their incredible inventions and scientific advances that were due to personal research and experimentation within their own homes. Without them we wouldn't have many of the things that we today take for granted like the lightbulb or airplane!

If they are going to go this route while unfortunate, the government should at least allow the ability for an individual to get certified as in how the licensing of firearms works in Canada. If you can take a safety course in firearms and be trusted with a firearms license then they should be able to be introduce something similar for lasers and at least not prohibit them outright to individuals who are well versed in laser safety, own goggles and have an appropriate contained indoor location to use them in a controlled environment. Unfortunately it will probably come down to the fact that there are not enough laser hobbyists to justify a certification program and they will probably just be simply prohibited outright for individual ownership. Its just freaking stupid in my opinion. :twak:

Sigurthr said:

I can't get into the details about this, suffice to say that Health Canada has started cracking down on consumers who are buying >5mW lasers. We're still trying to find out the specific policies. When we know, you'll know.

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Is this just for pointers or lab lasers as well? Would be a shame if they were to ban both

Ermm, I think you have the quote source wrong, ARGLaser... I didn't say that! EventHorizon did!