blue light hazard

[Sigurthr]

I wonder, what about people who work in blue environments? Surely it isn't just a coherent light issue, what about rooms painted blue, blue screens, blue spot lights in shows, etc?

I can't seem to find a specific wavelength range that BLH is implicating, but I'm guessing if it can trigger the blue photoreceptor it probably counts. If that is the case, then 405nm would also apply. If that is true, then you have to add blacklights in to the list of dangerous light sources as well.

 

[Cyparagon]

I wonder, what about people who work in blue environments?

Like... everyone?

All white light has blue in it. Unless someone can prove that the presence of non-blue light renders the blue light harmless, EVERYONE works with constant "hazardous" exposure to blue light for the entirety of their lives. :thinking:

Even if blue light was hazardous, you get a far larger dose from regular activities than you do from a laser. You're fcked anyway.

 

[Sigurthr]

Aye, I should have said "environments with elevated levels of light in the blue range of the spectrum".

The damage is cumulative and inescapable, you're abosolutely right. What I was getting at was that very notion, and also that people are making devils out of blue/white LEDs and Lasers like they are the sole cause when it isn't.

We are constantly bathed in a sea of radiation, ionizing or otherwise. The moment we can measure it or create it we instantly become afraid of it and demonize it. This combined with the knee-jerk reaction of the uninformed population at large will cause problems.

 

[Alaskan]

Really dude? Make that member name, putting a clock on your avatar and posting to old threads?

 

[Razako]

Re: Please help me understand the dangers ?

I'm more confused then ever after reading this thread, I just bought my first laser that isn't just a red dot laser pointer and is in fact a 445nm 1.33 watt blue laser, please can someone help me understand the danger of this laser, like is it ok to look at the beam shooting up into the night sky without safety glasses on ?

I thought that the reason safety glasses are needed was if you had reflected laser light say off something like a mirror or something chrome it would be like getting the laser shot directly in your eyes, But is it not ok to look at a laser beam indirectly at all without safety glasses ?

It's fine to look at the beam in the sky without safety glasses on. Just don't look at the dot on anything nearby and you're safe. This blue-light hazard stuff is pretty overblown. The sun puts out blue light. Your computer screen is putting out blue light. Blue light is EVERYWHERE.

 

[Razako]

"Just don't look at the dot on anything nearby and you're safe"

What do you consider "nearby" and is the concern reflected light bouncing back or is it that the dot is just very bright ?

A combination of both. The dot alone is very bright and can hurt your eyes looking at it on close objects. There's also a great danger of reflections off nearby shiny objects.

 

[Razako]

So if you are wearing laser safety glasses and a 1 watt beam reflected back at your eye your eye will be protected ?

Affirmative.

Razako I see you have a THOR M II laser(1600mw average/1700 mw peak) listed, That's what I just bought, What can you tell me about it and how did you get your power output to those specs ?

Oh and is it a 450nm or a 445nm laser like it was listed on Ebay ?

Got the power output specs from a laser power meter. Mine was listed as 450nm, but I suppose it could be either. There isn't any significant visual difference between 445 and 450 nm.

 

[Razako]

So you haven't done anything to your Thor M II that's just the power it has as received ?

Correct. I cannot guarantee yours will be similarly overpowered though.

 

[Alaskan]

You just put a troll back in the green, I negged him because as a new member with less than 5 posts he choose to dig up all of the oldest posts he could find on this subject and post to them. Pretty obvious troll with that name and avatar, if you don't see it you are too easy, these all stack up to troll when there is a recent controversy going on regarding people posting to old threads, this dude has taken advantage of that, seeing something to troll on and posted... one old thread after the other, then you keep feeding him.

 

[Razako]

You just put a troll back in the green, I negged him because as a new member with less than 5 posts he choose to dig up all of the oldest posts he could find on this subject and post to them. Pretty obvious troll with that name and avatar, if you don't see it you are too easy, these all stack up to troll when there is a recent controversy going on regarding people posting to old threads, this dude has taken advantage of that, seeing something to troll on and posted... one old thread after the other, then you keep feeding him.

Possibly, but he could also be a new member who just found the threads via google and posted to them. I could see somebody buying a powerful blue laser, looking up "Blue laser safety" on google and posting to the threads that came up. Even if he is a troll he only succeeded in wasting a few minutes of my time replying to this thread.

Personally I consider posts like the one here by futureone to be the most probable trolling. At least the guy here was actually posting legit seeming questions, while the other guy just posted a purely annoying response of "I would post here, but you guys probably wouldn't like what I have to say". Now THAT is trolling if I've ever seen it.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f66/anything-about-extraterrestrial-life-96959.html

 

[Alaskan]

Too many coincidences, that and he was complaining in another thread too. No way this is happening, I can see one old thread and going to it, but not three of them and the name and the avatar, too many, far too many... He's a troll, I will get that green out later.

 

[Razako]

I don't even know anymore. It somewhat defies my understanding why people would even waste time trolling this forum unless it was Eitan continuing to mess with us or something. I mean there are forums where a troll can piss off hundreds of people and get dozens of replies in minutes. Why troll LPF for a small handful of replies?