FDAs Proposed Ban Of Laser Pointers

[Radim]

Agreed.
Here's a little heads up for UK rules for anyone who's interested. The maximum mw to be legally bought and sold in UK is 1mw however most lasers on UK ebay and other places such as outdoor markets are obviously way over that limit. For now they are on ebay being sold as "powerful" or "burning" 1mw lasers :thinking: The figures of lasers being misused or pointed at aircraft have gradually been decreasing by year due to better public education of the law and some imprisonments.(that always gets the message home I think) But now the government is aware that these more powerful lasers are widely available to the public and very recently MSM picked up on the case of a young boy who bought a laser at a market which turned out to be 50mw. 50 TIMES MORE POWERFUL! *cue shock and dismay*. You know whats coming right? Unfortunately the kid shone the beam into his own eye and burned a small hole in his retina creating a blurry spot in his vision. As he is about 10 years old the hole is expected to repair as he grows. But the damage has been done,in both senses. In the same news piece they then showed something akin to the Spyder Arctic,maybe a Chinese copy that boasted a massive 2500! times the power of the legal limit. Highly dangerous.
Well that was the perfect advertisement to me.
As the caveat being that there is no law against the public importing high powered lasers into the UK,only to sell them. So obviously now there surely will be a clamp down on these powerful lasers being sold illegally in the UK and of course the Home Secretary will now be looking at this loop hole of obtaining high powered lasers abroad for importation. My guess is it wont be long before a change in the law banning any import over 1mw.
Hence me buying the Wicked Lasers Arctic 3.5w.
The rebel in me had to beat them to it.
If its a cool gadget,dangerous and looks good with frost on it, take my money.
Unfortunately irresponsible people always ruing everyone elses fun.
We live in a nanny state here in the UK way more than the US.
But I know the rules,the do's and dont's and i'm responsible (used to bee a member of a rifle club, yes we have those here and am capable of owning one of these without risk to anyone.
Power to the people I say.
After the Dunblane massacre a few years back we laid down and rolled over the allow them to ban owning of hand guns.
I dont hold out much hope for the UK laser community but hope that you in the US who actually fight for your rights will be allowed to continue in your pleasures of owning lasers.

Sorry if ive bored the heck out of everyone. Rant over. :bowdown:

Not boring at all. I lived in London some time and I can confirm it is like you said. Just taking a kitchen knife outside the house to have BBQ in park is illegal.

I've been a laser owner for more than 35 years. I have used He-Ne lasers to make holograms and have built both lab lasers and handheld/pointers that span all wavelengths. I would hate to become an outlaw because of what I have owned for many years, but I have no intention of giving up my lasers after all these years of responsible ownership.

That is what I'm afraid might happen to handheld/pointer lasers. I have many of these and I built most of them myself. To have owning one become suddenly illegal would put me outside the law, and I really don't want that to happen.

Here, Paul, I see the club members exemption. If there is any regulation where there is nothing regulated as it is basically banned (lasers), there should be way how to keep those like you legal. Otherwise that's punishment for being responsible and happy with your hobby and doing no harm. That is something really bad in that. With lasers banned, we would also reduce our technology developement as less interest would be in the hobby and young people would. ot get into them much.

 

[ArcticDude]

Yeah, they should ban all matches too. Few billion fires started accidentally all over the globe.
-Think all those unlucky people who died in those fires...

 

[Mosc007]

This seem to be more of a political issue than anything else. They don't seem to have any facts to prove any damage lasers have been causing. It's unfortunate that some people are stupid with them. Pointing them at planes is very stupid. But as stated to date, nothing has happened to any plane or pilot.


I agree with some regulations as high power lasers are very dangerous to people at close range. But an outright ban does not seem fitting.

 

[Alaskan]

Did they really want to ban yellow lasers? I bet there were no incidences with yellow, it is far too rare.

 

[Vetttech]

THE GOOD: I have followed this subject closely and there does not seem to be much of a push or much concern to push for any new laws by the law makers here in America. As stated by others, there has been no documented cases of a laser causing any aircraft crashes what so ever!

THE BAD: All it will take for consideration of new laws concerning hand lasers, will be some moron causing a aircraft or other, to crash and have a loss of lives!

Our hobby is in the hands of the " MORONS " of the world!:yabbmad:

 

[Radim]

Yeah, they should ban all matches too. Few billion fires started accidentally all over the globe.
-Think all those unlucky people who died in those fires...

ROFL. :crackup: ...and cars, knives, forks and spoons... I think they should ban stupidity and we would be happier.

BTW Welcome to 10K+ club. :beer:

 

[Emialias]

well this is stupid. i would just turn all my handhelds into labbys. that would look pretty neat, and its no longer considered a pointer so im ok also WHY WOULD YOU BAN 561?? as if some random teenager is thinking "hmm, if ima shoot down a plane, ima use one of the most expensive, hard to get wavelengths. i just so happen to have $800 lying around, i may aswell just waste it on something that will be used to put me in jail." same for 589! wtf??? a kid who doesnt know anything about these lasers is just gonna go for the cheapest route, and 589 is not cheap (although sometimes i wish it was)
EDIT:
also how would certain lasers be "defective"? CLEARLY they were meant to be a certain wavelength, and CLEARLY they were meant to have that power level for a purpose!

 

[diachi]

well this is stupid. i would just turn all my handhelds into labbys. that would look pretty neat, and its no longer considered a pointer so im ok also WHY WOULD YOU BAN 561?? as if some random teenager is thinking "hmm, if ima shoot down a plane, ima use one of the most expensive, hard to get wavelengths. i just so happen to have $800 lying around, i may aswell just waste it on something that will be used to put me in jail." same for 589! wtf??? a kid who doesnt know anything about these lasers is just gonna go for the cheapest route, and 589 is not cheap (although sometimes i wish it was)
EDIT:
also how would certain lasers be "defective"? CLEARLY they were meant to be a certain wavelength, and CLEARLY they were meant to have that power level for a purpose!

Did you actually read the article...?

There weren't going to be any regulations introduced relating to the possession of laser pointers, at least not on a federal level.

This would not make possession of current laser pointers illegal at the federal level. It would allow the federal government to ban the manufacture, importation, or sale of new non-red laser pointers. If some professions required specialized pointers, a manufacturer could request a FDA variance, allowing sales to law enforcement or other authorized users.

The reasoning behind the "defective" label is stated in the article too.

The FDA told TEPRSSC that it is considering designating all laser pointers from 400 nm (deep violet/near-UV) through blue, green, and yellow to 609 nm (red-orange) as "defective" under 21 CFR 1003.2. This is because such pointers "emit electronic product radiation unnecessary to the accomplishment of its primary purpose, which creates a risk of injury."

The above aligns well with existing FDA regulations on pointers.

And

A key advantage of this rule is that pointers could be controlled by color. A customs official does not need to measure a laser pointer's power—he or she could reject a shipment if there were any non-red beams emitted. States and cities could pass similar color-based restrictions based on the FDA's action so that local authorities could confiscate laser pointers based on their colors.

Also

As of May 2017, there has been no word from the FDA as to whether this proposal will go to the Federal Register stage. Further blurring the outlook is President Trump's January 30, 2017 Executive Order seeking to reduce the number of federal regulations.

 

[Benm]

Well, accepting them just by color would be a huge mistake if the aim is to prevent attacks on airplanes and such.

Red lasers can actually be pretty dangerous in such scenarios. Not that many are -that- powerful, but the very cheap single mode red lasers extracted from dvd writers are ideal from anyone messing with air traffic: Something like a 300 mW-ish single mode pointer could be obtained for $10 or so, and with proper beam expanders be quite the nuisance to airplanes.

In fact, it'd be easier/cheaper to blind a pilot a few miles away with a single mode dvd writer diode than with a multimode 445.

 

[dden4012]

Every time this comes up I end up buying a module.

 

[RedCowboy]

Well, accepting them just by color would be a huge mistake if the aim is to prevent attacks on airplanes and such.

Red lasers can actually be pretty dangerous in such scenarios. Not that many are -that- powerful, but the very cheap single mode red lasers extracted from dvd writers are ideal from anyone messing with air traffic: Something like a 300 mW-ish single mode pointer could be obtained for $10 or so, and with proper beam expanders be quite the nuisance to airplanes.

In fact, it'd be easier/cheaper to blind a pilot a few miles away with a single mode dvd writer diode than with a multimode 445.

Exactly, the divergence of 450nm projector laserbulbs is so horrible that they become floodlights pretty fast, of course this does not mean we can omit laser safety protocol as we are holding the emitting end, but pilots at 1000's of feet would get more light from a 200mw 660nm red.

 

[Richie89]

See this is how I feel about drones. I love drones but those are more dangerous to aircrafts than lasers IMO, and you don't see them banning them or making them illegal. I cringe everyone someone hits an airplane with a laser, that just gives Law makers and the FDA fuel for the banned fire. Ugh!! I wish their was something we all could do here on LPF

 

[RedCowboy]

Let people know, especially new people about avoiding the sky, hopefully the flebay cheapies will get bored but regular laser hobbyist need to know how to NOT draw unwanted attention.

I know what direction the airports are and how far they are, but I don't even point at trees in the airports direction, and I have stopped pointing to the sky, but if I did it would be clear at 3am with no holding pattern traffic that is out of my sight but still up and headed my way, and if you see an aircraft anywhere then don't point to the sky, watch and listen before you even think about it and never alarm people, basically keep it to yourself, sorry but that's what we need everyone to do in my opinion.

 

[Alaskan]

Many years ago I worked for a law enforcement agency, one thing they really love are more laws and the ability to crush people who violate them. I've seen a federal employee jump for joy when he found he could cite someone for a small infraction, personally getting off on the ability to push his will upon him. These folk see the laws they enforce as something personal as their authority and you know how human beings are when they think they have the right to stomp on someone, they often do.

 

[Radim]

See this is how I feel about drones. I love drones but those are more dangerous to aircrafts than lasers IMO, and you don't see them banning them or making them illegal. I cringe everyone someone hits an airplane with a laser, that just gives Law makers and the FDA fuel for the banned fire. Ugh!! I wish their was something we all could do here on LPF

Only we can do here is to rise awareness of laser safety, responsibility and grow our communite here IMO. The more people in the hobby using lasers responsibly, the more chance their voice will be heard and regulation therefore will include some form of expception for those qualified hobbyists. No need from FDA or any other subject to require some absolute bans. It is not that complicated to use high powered laser safe way. Still I do not see it realistic as seeing quite a few people active on LPF. At least now...

 

[GSS]

Alot of members seem to think the "eyes" are following this forum?
Is it time for some to tone down their signatures?