The Laser Safety Checklist - Be aware of your environment

[hikmetsezen]

You are right, the produced beam is not collimated and the risk is low. When I join this forum, I saw that some people, having limited or non-sufficient knowledge about laser safety, have a few watt laserpointer, it is really freaking me out. :thinking:

 

[EllyEnthusiastic]

Excellent post!

I would just suggest adding a bit to the dangerous objects/surfaces section.

Just about anything can be reflective. The most commonly overlooked surface seems to be window glass. Even if just 5% is reflected back, from a 1W+ laser that's more than enough to do damage.

Any smooth surface will reflect, glossy monitor (not to mention lasers burn out pixels really fast!), plastic bezel, bathroom tile, etc,.

The best and safest way to enjoy a laser beam indoors is with a beam dump. A brick or a rock painted black works perfectly.

You'd also want to make sure your beam dump is painted matte black. Don't want any chance for a reflection to happen, heh!

 

[NightExplorer96]

Very good point regarding planes & aircraft!

I can remember awhile back(before joining the forum) such an incident! I was using a cheap eBay 532nm which had a visible beam and was shinning it into the sky, everything was going ok right? All of a sudden BAM! Right where I was shinning a plane came right behind a cloud IIRC and my beam was right in front of the plane. I quickly turned it off and started shinning into the sky away from the aircraft and that was that. The plane landed safely and I didn't see the FBI at my door!

Common sense people!

-Alex