Scanner laser eye damage?

[over9five]

so thats the reason my cat keeps bumping into things

OMG, that was so funny!

 

[Big Babooba]

Ya and I heard that world is going to end next year.

We'll know for sure in 2013!

 

[menotyou]

I have a few laser pointers. I use them at night outside with the dogs. They work the best in the snow. They go nuts for the red dot. It is hilarious.

 

[pmurph5]

From time to time, accidentally mind you, I'd run the scanner past my eye, or somebody else's scanner will catch me really quickly. Does anyone know if this can cause serious eye damage down the road. It's happened to me quite a few times already since I started working as a loader a few months ago.

I work in the field of lasers and laser safety. The scanners you are using are designed to be eye safe. Both the power of the laser, and the scan pattern are designed to be below the Maximum Permissible Exposure limits set by laser safety experts. In addition, the MPE itself has a built-in "safety factor" so that even if you are exposed to light above the MPE, the chance of injury is low.

For comparison, in Europe and Asia a form of laser light shows called "audience scanning" is widespread. Laser beams that are hundreds of times more powerful and brighter than your scanning device are aimed directly into the audience. It is estimated that 109 million persons have been exposed to laser light well in excess of the MPE (10 to 100 times the MPE) over the past 30 years. So far, there have been 8 reported injuries.

Also, almost all reports of persons injured with laser pointers involve high-powered pointers (far in excess of your scanner's power) that are often deliberately aimed into the eye of the person.

Again, an accidental exposure to your device is perfectly safe. I would not look into it deliberately, but unless you are staring, no harm will be done.

-- Patrick Murphy, webmaster, LaserPointerSafety.com