The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to declare green and blue laser pointers as “defective.” This move would make sales of such pointers essentially illegal in the U.S. It would also make it easier for FDA to control and seize imports of such lasers.
The agency has two main goals:
1) “Turn back the clock” to the 1990s and early 2000s when almost all laser pointers were red. According to the agency, red light has the least interference with pilot vision, compared to equivalent-power green beams which can appear up to 28 times brighter. During this period there were “only” dozens or low hundreds of reported laser/aviation incidents per year, compared with 7,700 incidents in 2015.
2) Make it much easier for customs and law enforcement to identify illegal laser pointers simply by their color. Red and orange-red laser pointers would be permitted; all others would be illegal for general sales.
FDA’s restriction would only affect manufacture and sales of laser pointer products. If states and localities wanted to also restrict individual use and/or possession, they would have to enact new laws in most cases. (A few states and localities currently have restrictions on use and/or possession.) A benefit of FDA’s proposal is that law enforcement could easily identify whether a person possessed a legal or illegal laser, based on its color.
FDA’s proposal and rationale was stated in draft amendments presented to an FDA advisory panel on October 25 2016.
The agency wants to amend the federal laser performance standard to limit laser pointers to the visible range from 610 nanometers (orange-red) to 700 nm (deep red). All other colors including violet, blue, cyan, green, yellow and orange — any wavelength from 400 nm (deep violet) to 609 nm — would not be permitted.
The maximum power level for laser pointers would remain at 4.99 milliwatts.
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Here is a link to the full story. At the end of the story is a link to the FDA's document with their actual proposal.
I should remind everyone that FDA probably does not monitor or read this forum. You can discuss all you want here but your comments/input/suggestions etc. will not get to FDA.
If you want to contact FDA, try their consumer information contact webpage. The DICE people either can take your comment directly or can tell you who to contact further.
-- Patrick Murphy, LaserPointerSafety.com
The agency has two main goals:
1) “Turn back the clock” to the 1990s and early 2000s when almost all laser pointers were red. According to the agency, red light has the least interference with pilot vision, compared to equivalent-power green beams which can appear up to 28 times brighter. During this period there were “only” dozens or low hundreds of reported laser/aviation incidents per year, compared with 7,700 incidents in 2015.
2) Make it much easier for customs and law enforcement to identify illegal laser pointers simply by their color. Red and orange-red laser pointers would be permitted; all others would be illegal for general sales.
FDA’s restriction would only affect manufacture and sales of laser pointer products. If states and localities wanted to also restrict individual use and/or possession, they would have to enact new laws in most cases. (A few states and localities currently have restrictions on use and/or possession.) A benefit of FDA’s proposal is that law enforcement could easily identify whether a person possessed a legal or illegal laser, based on its color.
FDA’s proposal and rationale was stated in draft amendments presented to an FDA advisory panel on October 25 2016.
The agency wants to amend the federal laser performance standard to limit laser pointers to the visible range from 610 nanometers (orange-red) to 700 nm (deep red). All other colors including violet, blue, cyan, green, yellow and orange — any wavelength from 400 nm (deep violet) to 609 nm — would not be permitted.
The maximum power level for laser pointers would remain at 4.99 milliwatts.
====================
Here is a link to the full story. At the end of the story is a link to the FDA's document with their actual proposal.
I should remind everyone that FDA probably does not monitor or read this forum. You can discuss all you want here but your comments/input/suggestions etc. will not get to FDA.
If you want to contact FDA, try their consumer information contact webpage. The DICE people either can take your comment directly or can tell you who to contact further.
-- Patrick Murphy, LaserPointerSafety.com
