Hit in eye with 1000mw 445nm blue laser

NDFlyboy said:

I have been toying with the use of lasers for controling pests, mainly rabits that are destroying my garden. The slugs out of my pellet gun annoy the critters, but they just keep coming back for more, and I am somewhat concerned with a neighbor calling our local police saying there is a mad man running around with a gun in the city. So I tried using a 5 mw green laser on the rabbit, and after a short while it bothers him (or her?) and it hops away. My idea is either to chase it away, or make it blind so I can walk up to it and club it with the butt of the pellat gun. I see there are 1 and even 2 watt blue lasers, which would probably easily burn out its eye sight. I don't know how humane that would be, but I am also concerned with running about the neighborhood with a 2 watt laser that might be a danger to other humans, nor do I want burning rabbits hopping all over the place. Any thoughts or suggestions on this? Is 2 watt a bit overkill, and maybe a 50 mw might do the trick? Seems to me a laser might be also good for other pests such as mice and rats. Would a laser with a focus on it be better for this use? Roland riemers@wiktel<com

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try this instead...
Critter Trouble
pepper should do the trick.

1 watt to the eye, you're lucking you can see ANYTHING out of that eye. It could have easilly detached the retina, and cause blindness across the ENTIRE field of view of that eye. Retana attaches to optic nerve. Nerve is like webcam's USB cable. Disconnect your webcam, lose the entire image signal to the computer. Disconnect your retina, lose the entire image signal (from that eye) to the brain. In other words, COMPLETE BLINDNESS.

You should just thank your lucky stars that THAT did not happen.

Videogamer555 said:

1 watt to the eye, you're lucking you can see ANYTHING out of that eye. It could have easilly detached the retina, and cause blindness across the ENTIRE field of view of that eye. Retana attaches to optic nerve. Nerve is like webcam's USB cable. Disconnect your webcam, lose the entire image signal to the computer. Disconnect your retina, lose the entire image signal (from that eye) to the brain. In other words, COMPLETE BLINDNESS.

You should just thank your lucky stars that THAT did not happen.

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And yet, it did not happen. Nor has it happened yet. I'm all for laser safety. It's in my sig and I believe and practice it. But I'm also for factual data. Reality is that what you describe COULD happen, but what he describes is more likely to happen at these powers. A lot of kids on here with >1 watt lasers and almost no injuries so far.

Againg, be safe! But let's not exaggerate things either. That creates problems as well. If you exaggerate the dangers,then people play with lasers and don't see the danger level at that exaggerated level and then they start to doubt whether there are any dangers at all.

I prefer to accurately depict the dangers so that hopefully people take those dangers seriously and behave accordingly.

Dam Xoul,
i have been following this closely and all i can say is i am very sorry bud, expecially as it appears to be getting worse, and thanks for sharing this as nothing makes saftey hit home more than seeing the results that can happen.
If it makes you feel even a little bit better i am definately one that has learned from your accident.
Good luck mate and dont forget to make a follow up appointment with your specialist( you might as well make the most of your health insurance now that you have payed your excess this year)

tsteele93 said:

And yet, it did not happen. Nor has it happened yet. I'm all for laser safety. It's in my sig and I believe and practice it. But I'm also for factual data. Reality is that what you describe COULD happen, but what he describes is more likely to happen at these powers. A lot of kids on here with >1 watt lasers and almost no injuries so far.

Againg, be safe! But let's not exaggerate things either. That creates problems as well. If you exaggerate the dangers,then people play with lasers and don't see the danger level at that exaggerated level and then they start to doubt whether there are any dangers at all.

I prefer to accurately depict the dangers so that hopefully people take those dangers seriously and behave accordingly.

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Well at 1Watt a laser has the power to BURN wood! So why would anyone's eye be able to survive even a MILLISECOND of exposure to such a powerful laser beam? It makes no sense.

Also, if I ever had a laser of this sort, I would behave with the EXTRA caution that I would need to under the assumption that it COULD lead to complete blindness in an eye. A laser of this power level is most certainly not a toy, but is instead a dangerous tool (like any power drill or saw), and can also cause skin burns if you get the beam on your skin.

The strange thing is that Xoul's eye DID survive and he isn't even completely blind in that eye.

It is fantastic that if you ever get such a dangerous laser you will treat it with the respect that it deserves.

Videogamer555 said:

Well at 1Watt a laser has the power to BURN wood! So why would anyone's eye be able to survive even a MILLISECOND of exposure to such a powerful laser beam? It makes no sense.

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The reality is that it takes a very precise combination of events to actually do that. You cannot burn wood with a sweeping beam of a 1 watt laser - you have to hold it very still and it takes a few seconds unless the wood is very dark, and while the blink reflex is not fast enough to save you from ANY damage (as Xoul experienced) it does help prevent the massive damage you are describing. Wood can't blink.

Wood also isn't 80%+ water.

Again, please don't misunderstand me. I believe in laser safety. I practice laser safety. I have links in my sig to a laser safety site.

BUT, I personally believe that over-exaggerating the danger of a specific laser can lead to dangerous behavior just as easily as understating the danger.

If you run around saying things like, "you are lucky that you can see anything out of that eye" then people who do handle 1 watt lasers start to wonder what is really true. When I got on here, I beleived from the hype that just looking at the dot of a 1 watt laser on a matte surface would likely blind me in a few seconds.

Then one day I saw a video of a member testing his 2.5W+ laser on a laser power meter with no goggles.

Then I began to wonder... what is safe? Why didn't he go blind? What is really the truth? It reminded me of something else they told me would make me go blind when I was younger.

That is the problem when you dramatically overstate or exaggerate the dangers. When someone sees your dramatic version of the danger isn't true, they no longer trust any of the warnings and start to doubt the real dangers.

I hope that makes sense to you, if it doesn't then I probably won't be able to explain it and we'll just have to agree that we don't follow each other and move on.

How much damage could a 50mW do? Also, I am so sorry to hear about this. I hope it does get better overtime.

Buchner said:

How much damage could a 50mW do? Also, I am so sorry to hear about this. I hope it does get better overtime.

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It would depend on color .. especially red would do less damage. But color aside, about 1/20 of the damage on Xoul's eye I guess. Still too bad.

wow OP just read the whole story, honestly I was skeptical about glasses and thought you all were just being paranoid, after I saw the image of your retina I was shocked, I had an eye exam this summer for my vision and I have a snap of my own retina.. I don't really understand why it was such a big problem for you to get to the doctor, I don't know where you live, but I live in NYC and I have never ever went to the hospital for anything, I always go straight to specialists who can actually help you right away if its an emergency or just wait in line few hours, or make an appointment.. about your eye.. well as much as I know it will get worse with age that's for sure, but try not to mind the blind spot, remember you want your brain to be tricked into thinking that there is no blind spot so eventually you will just forget about it.. reason you see blurry is because of the messy surgery, they changed the shape of your eye so it doesn't focus the light properly, it can either be fixed surgically, or you will have to wear glasses when you're older with two different magnifications.

here's a snap of my healthy retina for the comparison (sorry for shitty quality)

Nsteezyy said:

Damn, crazy close call. I might need to buy a few... Are there any recommended sites?
I do have a 200mw one, but what one would be best for a 1w+?

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http://laserpointerforums.com/f53/get-some-safety-goggles-now-75799.html

InfinitusEquitas said:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f53/get-some-safety-goggles-now-75799.html

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Thanks for this!

Wow.

Just finished reading this entire thread from beginning to end. What a heads up!
Xoul, here's hoping for your continued recovery, glad to hear that your eye healed as good as it did.

While looking at the picture of your retina I remember thinking "If he'd glanced the wrong way at that flash and it hit the spot over the optic nerve a few millimeters away..." (shudder, chill).

I cannot thank you enough for sharing, doing so has very likely kept many others from getting hurt.

T.

These pictures should be something that all new members view, hehe

Buchner said:

How much damage could a 50mW do? Also, I am so sorry to hear about this. I hope it does get better overtime.

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It could cause headache and slight blindness if exposed for too long, anything above 5mW is deemed dangerous if used inproperly.

RedDart said:

It could cause headache and slight blindness if exposed for too long, anything above 5mW is deemed dangerous if used inproperly.

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It really depends on divergence, beam diameter, and distance. A laser with good divergence even at relatively low power can cause immediate damage, where a more powerful one with a thick beam, would be relatively harmless. All comes down to power density.