50mw laser eye damage

[InfinitusEquitas]

@joshshermannn1 -

Hope your friend is ok and learned his lesson. If he doesn't have any obvious damage that he is able to detect himself, than he's probably gonna be fine. Speaking from experience, after I was hit, I had an after spot, like from a flash in the dark, a very small spot though, and it took longer than any other in my life to go away, but it did. My eye doc couldn't detect any damage either - I got very lucky.

There really isn't anything which can be done when it comes to retina damage

Same with my coworkers. Sure, you can trust them with your life, but don't trust them with a laser. They simply don't get it.

Incredibly true.

I've read so many similar stories on here, and experienced situations like that myself.

3 weeks ago at a party I was playing around with lasers, just shining straight up in the sky. Lower powered one was 30mW with ~10mW of IR. So this girl wants to see a laser...

All good and fun, so I give her the safety shpiel, laser dangerous don't shine at people, cars, windows, very dangerous to eyes, hand it to her, and first thing she does is shine it at another guy, I grabbed her hand before she went over his face with it, but a second slower and I think he would have been hit in the face:yabbmad:

Now I mostly don't let anyone touch my lasers, and when I do, only when I can watch them like a hawk.

Can someone PLEASE also tell me why people always want to stick their hand through a beam?

 

[Fenzir]

Can someone PLEASE also tell me why people always want to stick their hand through a beam?

I think people think that a green laser will burn them because of how visible they are. I do it if I accidently turn off a light and need to see the ground and have a laser on me, I reflect it off my hand. But it is kinda cool seeing the entire beam just disappear like that...

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

I think people think that a green laser will burn them because of how visible they are. I do it if I accidently turn off a light and need to see the ground and have a laser on me, I reflect it off my hand. But it is kinda cool seeing the entire beam just disappear like that...

I'm willing to bet you don't do that with a 1W+ laser focused to infinity though.

I know exactly what you're talking about though. I did that lots of times with a 50mW green.

 

[Mohrenberg]

I use my laser to charge my cell phone.
Did I mention i'm the only person in the world that does that?
I'm just awesome that way....

 

[joshshermannn1]

@ mohrenberg not for long :eg:
my friend is fine, he got his eyes checked out, but it seems like he has insensitivity to green

 

[aryntha]

Think about it. Green laser.. in his face -- now he has an insensitivity to green. I'd say that yes, he has damage. And no, it probably is not fixable.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Think about it. Green laser.. in his face -- now he has an insensitivity to green. I'd say that yes, he has damage. And no, it probably is not fixable.

Correct me if I'm wrong (wouldn't be the first time) but wouldn't actual damage result in a lack of sensitivity to green light, as opposed to increased sensitivity to it?

Retinal damage is expressed more than anything as a decrease in overall sensitivity to light isn't it?

I think it's far more likely that he went through a traumatic experience, and is now avoiding either consciously or not, anything that reminds him of the experience.

 

[aryntha]

"insensitivity to green" would mean a lack of sensitivity to green.

Increased sensitivity to green would be described as "hypersensitivity" to green.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

^^^Crap. My own biggest pet peeve, and I'm guilty of it. Didn't read what was actually written:banghead: Thank you for pointing out my brain fart to me

 

[JBTexas]

I wouldn't think that retinal damage would result in a SPECIFIC insensitivity to any wavelength? Burnt rods and cones = burnt rods and cones. Insensitivity to EVERYTHING?

(correct me if I'm wrong...)

 

[Bluefan]

And laser damage to the retina should be obvious, or at least localized. A general insensitivity for green doesn't sound like laser damage. But a insensitivity for green after being hit by a green laser does sound like it's correlated, so I don't think it's that certain.

At least good to hear he's relatively ok.

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Here's something that's been bugging me.

I did some googling last night, but couldn't really find the proper answer.

What is the proper emergency procedure for someone who is hit hit a high powered laser? For retinal burns specifically?

 

[joeyss]

I believe all they can do is administer anti-inflammatory eye drops to help counter the swelling and prevent further damage. They can also give you eye some kind of protein. Lower powers CAN cause temporary damage if the contact is VERY brief and/or the laser diverged a bit before hitting the eyes.

 

[joshshermannn1]

@infititusequitas
the optometrist my friend went to said its a medical emergency, so she said go directly to a hospital- though i think she was exaggerating

 

[2100]

i let a friend of mine play with a 50mw green laser of mine(with glasses) and when i came back, glasses were off and he had flashed it across his face on accident i assume. what damage could this cause?
it has a very small beam diameter.

Probably a goner if he has seen any beam. But good to hear he is relatively ok. Only he himself knows if it really hit him. The light blast would have been PRETTY INTENSE. Why? Read On....

Guys, this is a true story, of myself, and it does not even inolve lasers.

I was modding and checking out/focusing a 100W HID on a 7" reflector searchlight. I switched it off and wanted to check out how bright the arc chamber was as i was overdriving a cheap 55W bulb. I was grabbing the light around so accidentally I hit the power rocker switch. It hot-restriked but it was not full brightness coz it was powered off for about 20s, nevertheless still pretty bright i presume.

Hit both of my eye, I can tell you that feeling WAS AS SOMEONE JUST STABBED YOU, just without the pain I guess. Really scary. You see nothing for about 3 minutes, and I felt nauseous/groggy. After that 3-5 mins of rest I was ok, but the retina image burn was really bad. I can see if at the bottom of my vision.
One of my eye began to feel a bit puffy. Note that HIDs also have quite a fair bit of UV, even though there is already some cut from the quartz envelope.

Rested for a night and it was ok. Burn images still there whenever I blinked but 99% gone. It took about 5 days for everything to return to normal.

I also got hit by those eye safe 1mW 670nm, it was from a Fluke 67 IR thermometer. It is extremely dim, much dimmer than those 5mW 650nm cell button pointers. Got a burn image for days.

Forget about the blink reflex, that is in theory and only happens on paper. In reality, it probably is worse than that, you are in fact flirting very close to the edge.

I remember a thread conversation here at LPF regarding power of reflection from diffused and semi-glossy/glossy surfaces with a 445nm (think it was with InfinitusEquitas and another guy). It was LPM measured and deemed to be pretty-eye safe even from reflective surfaces. Actually now after the recent HID incident, I don't believe in such calculations anymore. 0.5mW probably is very close to the edge, let alone 5mW. I think that discussion was something like if 445s are safe to wave around in the house.

Another example. You know those camera flashlights? You can just get one, any small one will do don't have to be those big 300 watt-seconds strobes (LOL!), maybe your point-n-shoot is cool too. Manual test flash at full power if possible, just any one, hold it 0.2m from your face and do a full power discharge. It can literally knock you off your feet with that brief millisecond flash. Someone did that to me in school as part of a prank, that was like nearly 20 years ago. This brief flash would be like a laser hit but lower in intensity. IIRC I physically lost balance and the same sense of fear nearly overcame me, coz I was like blind for quite a while. Went to a eye specialist and found no real damage, perhaps just a bit puffed up and eyedrops took care of that.

If your friend did not display any physical disorientation or "feel scared", most probably the beam was diverged or "it just got very close". It does not mean that a 20-50mW could be safe sometimes (we are just guessing)....I just want people to be clear on that.

Take care of your eyes dudes....

 

[Wolfman29]

I remember a thread conversation here at LPF regarding power of reflection from diffused and semi-glossy/glossy surfaces with a 445nm (think it was with InfinitusEquitas and another guy). It was LPM measured and deemed to be pretty-eye safe even from reflective surfaces. Actually now after the recent HID incident, I don't believe in such calculations anymore. 0.5mW probably is very close to the edge, let alone 5mW. I think that discussion was something like if 445s are safe to wave around in the house.[/COLOR][/B]

(I am another guy.)

However, on topic, yeah, I would think that, if he actually got hit in the eyes, you would have heard something....

Now, I have a bit of question....

I used to be a stupid kid, right? Like when I was ten. I would take those Walmart red pointers and just shine 'em in my eyes for seconds at a time. I am talking directly into them, from a couple of inches away.

Yet, after about 5 minutes after I would do this (I did this a lot as a kid), my vision would be perfectly clear.

Reasons?