Newbie here: will looking at the dot from Blue 1W 445 from 1 meter damage sight?

[IceFireForce]

Hello,

I just bought my first blue laser. Not knowing enough about it, I fell a “victim” to the seller (got it second hand) as he was demoing it for me prior to purchase. He happily shown me how it burns a matchstick, white paper (!) and blue plastic cap. This happened outside in pure daylight and we were both looking at the action unprotected from about one meter afar. It was tried on the ground, on soil, so no reflective surfaces to make a bad situation worse.

I quickly realized that this isn’t how you handle a blue laser, probably just because of the extreme brightness of the dot and because after I felt dull slight pain in my eyeballs. No after images or dark spots.

I was not looking the whole time, I instinctively placed my hand between the dot and my eyes a few times while he was happily showing off for me...

I will obviously never do this again myself. Should I be worried from such exposition though?

 

[IceFireForce]

No replies one hour in. Perhaps I should rephrase this - I am just trying to understand if my exposure as outlined has been outrageously dangerous, or just it's that I have "not done the best thing and I should generally not do it", but it's not too risky / concerning as a one-off accident. So - have you looked at the dot in a similar way, probably at the beginning prior to knowing more about lasers?

 

[GSS]

No replies one hour in. Perhaps I should rephrase this - I am just trying to understand if my exposure as outlined has been outrageously dangerous, or just it's that I have "not done the best thing and I should generally not do it", but it's not too risky / concerning as a one-off accident. So - have you looked at the dot in a similar way, probably at the beginning prior to knowing more about lasers?

Members here can have jobs and other issues that keeps them from replying Plus there is not alot of members here compared to other forums and the population in general.
Burning outside is one of the few times that you "might" not need safety glasses. Up close burning does get very bright and tiresome on the eyes. If you did not get hit with a reflection you should be ok as your eyes adjust back just like when you look at the sun for a short few seconds maby.
Even outside burning so up close on a object you should wear glasses especially when someone else is in control of the laser.
Was the user wearing glasses?

 

[IceFireForce]

Members here can have jobs and other issues that keeps them from replying Plus there is not alot of members here compared to other forums and the population in general.
Burning outside is one of the few times that you "might" not need safety glasses. Up close burning does get very bright and tiresome on the eyes. If you did not get hit with a reflection you should be ok as your eyes adjust back just like when you look at the sun for a short few seconds maby.
Even outside burning so up close on a object you should wear glasses especially when someone else is in control of the laser.
Was the user wearing glasses?

Not at all. He was obviously completely uninformed about what he is dealing with, as I assume scarily many people are. I will, myself, from now on, if I keep the laser, always use goggles with the one exception when pointing the sky.

 

[GSS]

He's an idiot putting others in danger
Use common sense and you will be ok. "Survival Laser's" carry the best hobby glasses. ""Eagles"" Your eyes are worth $40 for top notch protection.
The have better visabilty of the spot your burning and protect up to OD5 or OD6..

 

[IceFireForce]

He is an idiot, I unfortunately need to agree, for A) operating the equipment without prior notice and not in accordance to how it should be done and B) selling it without proper instructions given at all, nor safety glasses.

I hope I have a strong chance this one-off occurrence has not damaged my vision.

I am thinking of buying two sets of these.
One to protect myself and a spare one to protect up to one spectator when I want to show off, you know, do it right.

I am also considering making a safety video on my youtube channel to try to instruct everyone in an easy-to-understand manner.

 

[Encap]

Would be a good idea to learn something about the topic of laser safety first before you play pretend on YT and mislead people.
Given you have no credentials, knowledge , experience, or training on the subject you can easily do more harm then good.

Probably --a you tube video based on very limited understanding and experience is not a good idea. The best you can do on a YT video is to refer everyone to the two links below to learn about laser safety.

High powered laser are not toys for every village idiot and child to play with. Laser safety is not a playtime for children subject.
There are National and International standards for same and the subject is a large one in the real world with technical and scientific calculations concerning safety. Sellers of high powered hand held lasers are mostly with few exceptions reckless and irresponsible Chinese merchants who would be selling ping pong balls if not lasers . They tend to know nothing about the products they sell and often misrepresent the product--is a money is god and god is money mentality. They could not care less about the customers much less their safety---just $s.

Hand held lasers over 5mW in output power as items of commerce are illegal to sell from within the USA to people within the USA which is why nobody manufactures hand held lasers of any output in USA, is a waste of time to do as a commercial item+ any laser pointers over 5mW are illegal to import into the USA -- so the overseas sellers smuggle them into the US with false shipping documents and hope the package is not caught/seized by US Customs.
Many laser making companies are "red listed" by FDA and US Customs --any packages from them are stopped and disposed of see: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cms_ia/importalert_254.html


To learn about laser safety study this excellent site: https://www.laserpointersafety.com/

See laser hazard chart here: https://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/resources/FAA---visible-laser-hazard-calcs-for-LSF-v02.png

 

[IceFireForce]

This is all good read, thank you.

 

[Alaskan]

This guy forms sentences too intelligently to be that dense guys. I think he just wanted more hits to his video coming in here with this stuff.

 

[IceFireForce]

Once again, I am not the guy from the video I referenced. I did find this video in search of how people operate those lasers. I do have a youtube channel - a travel vlog, which I have not referenced anywhere here.

 

[IceFireForce]

Please, refer to my own self-conclusion on the topic in my other post, https://laserpointerforums.com/thre...om-1-meter-with-no-glasses-cause-harm.104863/

 

[paul1598419]

I hate social media. It attracts the worst of the attention whores and misinforms the many youngsters that populate it. This is literally the only platform I participate in, but only to gain or impart knowledge. There are far better ways to learn than sticking your head in a screen most of the day.

 

[steve001]

Once again, I am not the guy from the video I referenced. I did find this video in search of how people operate those lasers. I do have a youtube channel - a travel vlog, which I have not referenced anywhere here.

Link the vlog please in the subforum "Other"

 

[IceFireForce]

Steve, it has nothing to do with lasers. I will send you a pm.