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What other concerns are there about lasers?
Home » Handheld Electronics » Laser Pointers » What other concerns are there about lasers?Many safety professionals are concerned about secondary effects of exposure to laser pointers. Secondary effects are experienced when a person is exposed to a laser while in the middle of a critical activity.
An example of this is when someone is shining a laser on a highway and someone driving sees the beam and loses control of their vehicle due to the distraction or because of impaired vision.
These secondary effects don't only apply to laser pointers, but all lasers. There have actually been reports of pilots who have had to look away or hand control of a landing airplane over to a co-pilot because of a similar effect from a powerful laser light show.
Laser experts agree that transient visual effects are possible and should be addressed. These effects are called glare, flashblindness and afterimage. While there are slight differences in the definitions scientists use for these terms, they all refer to some vision disruption that lasts only a few seconds or minutes. The Laser Institute of America has received one report where exposure to a laser pointer startled a bus driver resulting in a traffic accident.
People often have strong psychological reactions to being illuminated with a laser beam. One researcher found that at times people receive eye injuries, not from the beam itself, but by a strong response that includes vigorously rubbing or sticking their fingers in their eye.
http://www.laserinstitute.org/publications/safety_bulletin/laser_pointer/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_pointer
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