Purposely looked at 50mw laser...

[mikeylee25]

At what power will lasers damage your eyes? I looked at my friends military 50mw green laser for at least 5 seconds and nothing happened. Is it diffirent mw for everybody for their eyes to get damaged? No I had no information about lasers back then, this was a year ago

 

[Robert S]

Even 5 mW will damage your eyes if you keep them open when your blink reflex should normally close them.

Not sure how fast that is but probably less than 200 ms?

So power x10 and time x25 ? not sure if thats a good calculation.. but you get the idea.

 

[mikeylee25]

5 full seconds

 

[mikeylee25]

How come my eyes didnt get damaged?

 

[Pi R Squared]

At what power will lasers damage your eyes? I looked at my friends military 50mw green laser for at least 5 seconds and nothing happened. Is it diffirent mw for everybody for their eyes to get damaged? No I had no information about lasers back then, this was a year ago

What do you mean by looked at it? Looking at the beam is always safe, taking a direct hit to the eye is not safe. Looking at the dot up close or while burning stuff isn't safe, the dot can be brighter than the sun and so it can cause damage. I wouldn't be to worried about 50mW though as long as it doesn't reflect off something and hit you in the eye.

To answer your question, <1mW is considered safe however I still wouldn't point one in my eye, <5mW is reasonably safe because your blink reflex is fast enough to prevent damage. Any laser can cause eye damage if you take a direct hit if the power density is high enough (this depends on the area of the beam). Lasers in the visible spectrum will damage your retina while an IR laser that you can't even see can damage your lens or cornea. Any damage is permanent and cumulative, so slight damage that you don't notice will become noticeable with slightly more damage. So it's necessary to be very careful with lasers, someone too careless with lasers over a long period of time could end up with some eye damage before they know it. Also with any class 4 laser (500mW and up) you must avoid any direct contact with the beam, not just your eyes.

Alan

 

[Robert S]

Oh, you mean you only looked at the dot?

At 50mW that shouldnt be a problem unless you get hit by reflections.

 

[Laser Chick]

It all matters what you mean by looked at it. Did you just look at the host? Look at the beam? Look at the dot? Have it directly pointed at your eye? There are many factors involved such as time(5 seconds) wave length(green), output(50mW), distance, direct or indirect, surface type, width of beam and so on. As stated above any laser over 1mW can cause damage.

 

[Encap]

At what power will lasers damage your eyes? I looked at my friends military 50mw green laser for at least 5 seconds and nothing happened. Is it diffirent mw for everybody for their eyes to get damaged? No I had no information about lasers back then, this was a year ago

Looked at can mean a lot of things.

Looking at the beam or at a dot on wall is different than looking directly into the beam at the laser light source or catching the source off a mirror i.e. direct hit, even 5mW will cause damage.

See laser hazard safety chart here http://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/resources/Laser-hazard-distance-chart.pdf

 

[Pi R Squared]

It all matters what you mean by looked at it. Did you just look at the host?

:crackup::crackup::crackup:He did say he looked at his friends laser, but I hope that's not what he meant by looking at it, I am going to assume that it was at least turned on.

Safety glasses are not needed unless the laser is turned on.:crackup:

Alan

 

[mikeylee25]

Sorry,i mean i directly looked at the beam to be more specific

 

[Pi R Squared]

Sorry,i mean i directly looked at the beam to be more specific

Just to be clear on this, you looked at the beam, you didn't point the beam in your eye, you looked at the the beam from behind the laser or from the side? This is safe to do.

Alan

 

[VisibleGreen]

Sorry,i mean i directly looked at the beam to be more specific

Yeah you're fine.

 

[Trendkilla254]

I'm feeling slightly trolled.

 

[APEX1]

I'm feeling slightly trolled.

I agree lol

 

[mikeylee25]

No,im not trolling,im just curious why or how it didnt affect me? Maybe it did and i dont somehow notice?

 

[mikeylee25]

Just to be clear on this, you looked at the beam, you didn't point the beam in your eye, you looked at the the beam from behind the laser or from the side? This is safe to do.

Alan

Yes i pointed it in my eye