A comprehensive resource for safe and responsible laser use

UK: Man uses laser pointer to "improve" Mars' atmosphere so he can claim it as his own

A 50-year-old doctor regularly aims a powerful laser pointer at Mars in an effort to slightly warm the atmosphere. This would allow him to claim that he has "improved" the Martian climate, which in turn under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty would give him claim to the planet even though he has not set foot there.

Dr. Philip Davies does not think he will substantially cause a greenhouse effect on Mars. His effort is primarily to point out shortcomings in the wording of the treaty, that in turn could lead to revisions. Davies' goal is to prevent militarization of Mars or other off-Earth bodies.

To help publicize his effort, he is claiming he owns Mars and is selling plots of Martian land, with a few acres going for one U.S. cent.

Mars laser pointer
The laser pointer can be seen on the left side of Dr. Davies' telescope. At right is the beam it projects into the sky. From the look of the laser, it's output power is probably in the low Class 4 range, around 500 to 1000 milliwatts (1/2 to 1 watt).


From News.com.au. Davies' efforts have been the subject of numerous news stories such as from the Daily Mail. Do an internet search for "Philip Davies laser Mars" to find the latest on his efforts.

US: Hobbyist builds 200-watt portable laser from scrap parts

A video on YouTube shows a homemade 200-watt portable laser “bazooka” made from cast off parts and broken electronics. One week after being posted on June 28 2016, the video from user “Styropyro” (Drake Anthony) had 1,733,000 views. Stories about the laser were also featured on major media sources including the Daily Mail, the Mirror, Popular Science, Yahoo News/Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, and TechCrunch.

Anthony started by harvesting lasers used in DLP video projectors, such as the Casio “LampFree” series:

Casio LampFree laser hybrid projectors

He purchased four broken projectors, each with an array of blue laser diodes totaling 50 watts, to get a grand total of 200 watts of laser output. He then used knife-edge optical components to help superimpose all the laser beams.

When energized, the beam is immense and powerful:

styro-small

The highest (most hazardous) laser classification is Class 4, which starts at 500 milliwatts (0.5 watts). Such lasers can cause instant eye injury, skin burns and can burn materials. Anthony’s 200 watt laser is 400 times more powerful than the 0.5 watt limit where Class 4 begins.

In the video, Anthony says “this feels like I’m holding a bolt of lightning in my hands. This is definitely my new favorite toy.”

Adding a magnifying glass to the end focuses the beam onto a spot that can almost instantly burn a block of wood:

200w styropyro laser 02

When operating the laser, Anthony wears a welder’s mask with laser goggles fitted. This prevents potential retinal burns caused by looking at the concentrated laser light. Below he is shown with the laser and mask.

200w styropyro laser instagram

At the end of the video, he says “I'm glad to have finally finished this beast because that means I can start working on some of my other projects, and in the coming months I have a lot of crazy stuff planned including impulse lasers that peak in the megawatts as well as explosively pumped lasers, so I'm looking forward to that….Until the next time, stay safe and happy lasing!”

Drake Anthony is a 23-year old senior at Southern Illinois University, who has been accepted into the University of Rochester PhD program. In a Feb. 2016 newspaper profile entitled “SIU student turns passion for lasers into potential career”, the author notes that “What really excites Anthony is the science behind the beam.” She quotes him as saying “From a theory perspective, it’s beautiful. It uses physics, it uses quantum physics, chemistry, good things of math, engineering. It’s just this conglomeration of all the best things that humans have come up with.”

From the YouTube video
“My Homebuilt 200W LASER BAZOOKA!!!!!”, posted June 28 2016

UK: Government safety expert says eBay needs to crack down on sale of lasers

A laser safety expert at Public Health England told the Sun that “eBay needs to crack down on the sale of [laser pens] to keep the British public safe — and prevent a major incident.”

Dr. John O’Hagan said that many of the handheld laser pens and pointers being sold on eBay “are very clearly not one milliwatt.” According to eBay guidelines, such lasers above 1 mW are not supposed to be listed. O’Hagan noted that the pens may be “misleadingly …. designed to look like less powerful lasers, and are priced at only around £5 [USD $7], so people may not even be aware of what they are buying.”

From the
Sun; scroll down to the “Lasers” section. See also a similar warning from a UK laser pointer seller.

UK: Laser pointer seller says eBay is the main source of UK illegal high-powered lasers

The managing director of two UK websites that sell laser pens issued a statement saying that eBay is the primary source of illegal, high-powered lasers in the United Kingdom. The February 17 2016 statement from Paul Loudon also notes that lasers above 1 mW are not freely available, and that existing laws already make it illegal to point a laser at an aircraft or vehicle.

Loudon estimates that eBay sales “are in the thousands” each day. According to the statement, “Currently there are over 2000 laser pens for sale on eBay UK. It appears 90% of the listings are for products that are clearly over 1mW and often with sales histories of thousands in a single listing. Multiply that and it becomes really obvious where all these overpowered lasers are coming from that idiots are abusing.”

He calls for eBay to begin “monitoring and delisting all these crazy hyped up laser listings”.

From a statement emailed to LaserPointerSafety.com on February 17 2016. The complete statement is reprinted below; click the “Read More…” link. And click here for other eBay-related stories, including one a day later where a UK public safety official called on eBay to “crack down” on laser sales.
Click to read more...

UK: UPDATED - Medical report on commercial pilot injured by blue laser at 1300 feet

The journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance in January 2016 published a paper entitled “Blue Laser Induced Retinal Injury in a Commercial Pilot at 1300 ft”. The case report is as follows:

“An airline pilot presented to our department complaining of a blind spot in the upper left area of his visual field in the right eye (right supero-nasal scotoma) following exposure to a laser beam while performing a landing maneuver of a commercial aircraft. At around 1300 ft (396 m), a blue laser beam from the ground directly entered his right eye, with immediate flash blindness and pain. Spectral domain ocular coherence tomography highlighted a localized area of photoreceptor disruption corresponding to a well demarcated area of hypofluorescence on fundus autofluorescence, representing a focal outer retinal laser injury. Fundus examination a fortnight later revealed a clinically identifiable lesion in the pilot’s right eye commensurate with a retinal-laser burn.”

The paper said the pilot’s symptoms “fully resolved 2 wk later” and that there was no “deficit in visual function.”
Click to read more...

US: Hobbyist builds 40 watt laser "shotgun"

A hobbyist posted a YouTube video on June 7 2015, showing a homemade laser “shotgun” that emits a 40 watt visible light beam capable of burning materials almost instantly.

styropyro 40 watt 40W laser shotgun

The hobbyist, with the username “styropyro,” wrote on YouTube: “Just finished building my 40W(!!!) laser shotgun!!! The output of this laser is complete insanity, and is made up of 8 parallel 5W laser beams totaling to 40W. The parallel beams are manipulated with lenses, sort of like how a choke modifies the spread of a shotgun blast. The massive diode array is powered by a huge lithium polymer battery pack (capable up dumping 250A) and the laser array is regulated by a whopping 24 LM317 drivers. This is definitely the craziest thing I have ever built, but I hope to beat this invention with something even crazier before too long.”

In the video narration, he said “I just built something so crazy that I’m almost afraid to use it” and “There is no, no good reason for anybody to own something this powerful. But because it wasn’t illegal for me to build, I decided to build it anyway.” The video then goes on to show the beam popping balloons, and burning paper, a ping-pong ball, and other materials.



Styropyro had previously posted other videos with titles such as “Homemade Lightsaber!?! MASSIVE 3W Handheld Laser Torching Stuff!!”, “My Homemade 6W Laser Sword!!!” and “Homemade Death Ray Laser DRONE BOT!!! Remote Controlled!!!”

From Gizmodo. Thanks to Patrick Daniel Murphy for bringing this to our attention via Reddit.

UK: 107 laser pens seized from house near Southampton Airport

British police in late September 2014 seized 107 laser pens from a house in Eastleigh, Hampshire, near the flight path of Southampton Airport.

In the ten weeks prior to September 26 2014, there were seven incidents of lasers being pointed at aircraft; five of these led to arrests.

News reports did not directly link the misuse to the man arrested with the 107 laser pens. It also is not known if the investigation that led to the seizure was started in response to the aircraft incidents, or was separately initiated. All flights landed safely.

One of the seized pens was said to be 650 times more powerful than normal. Given that U.K. regulations prohibit laser pointers above 1 mW, the pen was likely 650 milliwatts. This is Class 4, the most hazardous laser classification, as the beam can cause eye and even skin burns.

From the Daily Echo

US: Review of 1-watt blue laser with US-required safety features

A USD $159 1-watt blue laser, apparently having all required FDA safety features, was reviewed by a gadget blog on May 4 2014.

The SKY Technologies Blue Handheld includes a keyswitch, 3-5 second emission delay, remote interlock, and a shutter to cut off the beam, as required by FDA regulations enforced by the agency’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH). Under current (May 2014) law, the laser appears to be legal for sale and use in the U.S., assuming the manufacturer also submitted a proper Laser Product Report and has filled all other FDA/CDRH import and paperwork obligations.*

skytech_bluelaser-diagram-400w


Click to read more...

Germany: Latest film-inspired laser shoots beams out of glasses

Laser hobbyist Patrick Priebe has fabricated a unique pair of glasses that emulates the X-Men comic book hero “Cyclops”. It emits two powerful Class 4 blue laser beams, as if they are coming from a person’s eyes. In addition, there are two low-powered red aiming beams.

The technique is to look in the desired direction with the red aiming beams on, then to switch on the blue beams while looking at the desired target. The glasses have a lens that attenuates blue laser light, so that the user is protected in case of any reflected blue beams.

Patrick Priebe X-Men Cyclops laser glasses
The two blue beams emitted from Priebe’s glasses, each roughly 1 watt, can burn cloth and pop balloons.

X-Men Cyclops

His inspiration: Cyclops’s 2-gigawatt “optic blast,” which is red in the Marvel comic books.


An online YouTube video shows Priebe’s laser glasses in action:



Due to the inherent danger of head-worn lasers, Priebe is not making additional glasses and he is not offering plans for others to build their own.

Priebe has previously built custom laser gadgets such as a replica of Iron Man’s palm-mounted repulsor ray projector, a laser “Gatling gun” with six rotating 1.4 watt blue beams, and a laser gun that emits a non-visible 1 megawatt pulse.

From Gizmodo. Original video posted by AnselmoFanZero.

US: Famous DJ explains why he had to have a 2 watt laser pointer

Avicii, a 24-year-old Swedish DJ and record producer, who was ranked #3 in the 2012 and 2013 “Top 100 DJ’s” poll of DJ magazine, purchased a 2 watt, $1,500 laser for recreational use. He discussed this in a February 1 2014 Rolling Stone profile where the interviewer asked “What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever spent money on?”

Avicii answered “I just bought a really awesome laser pointer. It's two watts, so it's five hundred times stronger than those regular green laser pointers. If you were standing on top of the Empire State Building with it, you could see all the way to Philadelphia. It's dangerous. You can't really play with it. You need to use goggles or you could go blind. But I saw some YouTube videos where it set stuff on fire, and I was like yes. It cost $1,500. That's not too bad for such an amazing invention.”

From Rolling Stone

Germany: Hobbyist creates laser "Gatling gun" with six rotating 1.4 W blue beams

Well-known master builder Patrick Priebe has created a laser with six 1.4 watt blue lasers that rotate, similar to a Gatling gun. In addition, there is a 100 milliwatt green laser used for aiming:

Patrick Priebe laser Gatling gun

Click to read more...

US: Amateur astronomers illuminate International Space Station with spotlights and 1-watt laser

On March 4, 2012, amateur astronomers from San Antonio and Austin were able to flash the International Space Station with two 800 million lumen white spotlights and a 1-watt blue laser, aimed from the Lozano Observatory in Spring Branch, Texas. This appears to be the first time that astronauts have seen civilian light beams aimed at them.

ISS flash5-6 anim_400w
Two-frame animated GIF showing bright and dim light from the Lozano Observatory (center) near the city of San Antonio (left). North is to the right in this photo from the International Space Station, taken by astronaut Don Pettit. Click on photo for a larger version.


The spotlights were flashed at the ISS by holding plywood sheets in front of the lights every two seconds. This procedure can be seen in the video below.

The animated GIF above shows a bright blue light alternating with a dim light. The bright light is almost certainly from the spotlights. The bluish tint may be an artifact of oversaturating the camera’s sensor. Astronaut Don Pettit reported that the bright light appeared white, and the dim light appeared blue. He wrote “We could only see the laser when the white light was off and not all the time.” (E.g., the white spotlights overpowered the blue laser.) He added, “It was like there were tracking issues with the laser to keep it on target.”

The dim light in the animated GIF may be the laser only, or it may be light from the spotlights that wasn’t fully blocked by the plywood sheets. The astronomers will be working with Pettit, trying to pin down exactly how visible the laser light was.

Click to read more...

US: LIA warns against dangers of laser pointers

The Laser Institute of America warned the public that high-powered laser pointers are a danger to eyesight. Specifically, LIA cautions that such lasers are a “real, immediate and often unrecognized danger.”

LIA did not give specific recommendations to avoid eye injuries, other than individuals being cautious. They did note that “[t]here is an active debate about what should be done. Is the solution education, regulation or prohibition for this type of hand-held laser device?…. Until the time that these lasers are statutorily banned, regulated through licensing or are widely recognized as a hazard, many more injuries will occur. The public should take note of these dangers immediately and keep these high-power, hand-held devices away from children and the untrained user.”

Full text of the July 26 2011 press release from LIA News is below (click the “Read More…” link).Click to read more...

Worldwide: Laser pointers reach 2000 milliwatts (2 watts)

An online laser seller has announced a number of 2000 milliwatt (2 watt) laser pointers. This is a new high power for handheld lasers intended to be sold to consumers. And the end-user price of under USD $200 is remarkably low. Only a few years ago, a small portable 2 W laser would have cost thousands of dollars.

To give an idea of its power, here are some comparisons:
  • The U.S. limit for a laser to be sold as a pointer is 5 mW (0.005 watt). The new lasers are 400 times more powerful than a “legal” laser pointer.
  • The infamous Wicked Laser Spyder III Arctic is nominally a 1000 mW laser (1 watt). However, most Arctics actually emit around 800 mW, so if the new lasers really reach 2000 mW then they are 2.5 times as powerful as a Wicked Arctic.
  • The most dangerous laser classification, Class 4, begins at 500 mW (1/2 watt) for visible light. Class 4 lasers can cause instant eye damage, skin burns, and can be a fire hazard for certain materials. The new devices are four times the minimum for a Class 4 laser.
  • A 2000 mW laser is an eye hazard up to about 1,000 feet away from the laser.
Click to read more...

US: Casio sends cease-and-desist letter to "harvesting" hobbyist

Casio’s law firm sent a cease-and-desist letter to a laser hobbyist who was selling laser diodes harvested from a Casio video projector. The letter objected to the removal of the diodes (“disassembly is prohibited”) and to the use of Casio’s name in the eBay auction.

The hobbyist indicated “I will comply since the things don’t really bring me much money.”

A link to the hobbyist’s post and the text of the letter are after the break (click the “Read More...” link below). For background information on the Casio diode harvesting, see the June 2010 alert.Click to read more...

US: FDA warns of risk from high-powered lasers

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a “safety notification” to consumers, warning them about the risk of eye and skin injuries from high-powered lasers.

The announcement, dated a week before Christmas said “high-powered laser pointers” are “illegal and potentially dangerous.... The FDA wants to make consumers aware that they should not buy these lasers for themselves or as gifts for others.”

The announcement noted that “many eye injuries from laser pointers go unreported.” Of reported injuries, FDA said in 2010 they were aware of three incidents involving children playing with laser pointers. One of these caused damage “from reflected beams after directing a 150 mW laser pointer into a mirror.”

FDA also described incidents of pilots experiencing temporary flash-blinding. In 2009, pilots reported 1500 incidents; in the first 10 months of 2010, there were 2321 incidents. FDA noted in boldface that “Using a laser to illuminate aircraft is a federal crime.”

FDA listed five recommendations:
  • Do not let children own or use laser pointers.
  • Do not buy any laser pointer over 5 mW
  • Do not aim laser pointers at any “person, pet, vehicle or aircraft” either directly or through reflections.
  • If you own a laser pointer over 5 mW, “dispose of it safely according to local environmental protection guidelines.”
  • If you are injured, see your eye doctor

The complete safety notification can be found on this FDA webpage, and is also reprinted here (click on the “Read more...” link).Click to read more...

US: FDA "disapproves" of Wicked Lasers; stops imports

Tech website Gizmodo reports that the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) sent a letter Nov. 3 2010 to Wicked Lasers, disapproving of “the quality control and testing program for all [Wicked] laser products.” This includes the well-known Spyder III Arctic, a nominal 1-watt, 445 nm blue handheld laser.

FDA cites eight items of noncompliance:
  • Three of these items relate to a January 2006 letter which FDA says Wicked did not respond to.
  • Four items relate to Wicked claiming in 2006 and 2008 that its lasers were sold for surveying, leveling and alignment (SLA) purposes; FDA says Wicked is not complying with restrictions on SLA lasers. (FDA has greater authority to regulate SLA lasers than it does to regulate general-purpose lasers).
  • The final item objects to Wicked stating on its website that its products are “FDA Certified” when in fact the manufacturer certifies compliance to FDA, who reviews and files the certification documents.
FDA gave Wicked 15 days to respond in one of three ways: by refuting the charges, by requesting an exemption, or by notifying purchasers and taking corrective actions (e.g., a recall or refund). Wicked cannot certify lasers under the old “disapproved” testing program, and cannot import or sell non-compliant lasers or non-certified lasers.

The restrictions will be lifted, FDA told Wicked, once “CDRH determines that you have established an adequate quality testing program, and you have submitted the required reports and report supplements.”

From
Gizmodo. The full text of FDA’s warning letter to Wicked is after the link (click “Read more...”)Click to read more...

US: UPDATED - Injury reported from Casio-sourced 630mW diode

A laser hobbyist reported injuring himself with a 630mW “keychain” laser emitting at 445 nm. He had a brief, accidental exposure when he lost his grip on the laser and it crossed a mirror. It hit directly in his left eye. He reported being flashblinded for 30 seconds and had an afterimage for 10 minutes, with the center “as black as black could be”. The black spot stayed for about 12 hours.

More than two weeks after the accident, he reports “... there are no identifiable irregularities. I am certain there is permanent damage in the spot, but it is so far out in [my] peripheral vision, that it is just not noticeable. So I have officially ceased worrying about it. Lesson learned.”Click to read more...

US: Laser institute warns against powerful new Class 4 portable lasers

The Laser Institute of America is concerned that new, affordable Class 4 portable lasers may place consumers and others “at risk of injury”. They have issued a press release recommending “not purchasing this or any other Class 4 laser device until you have had proper safety training...” LIA’s warning comes as a result of the June 2010 introduction of a low-cost portable laser by the internet seller Wicked Lasers.

The full press release from LIA is below (click Read More...).Click to read more...

Worldwide: Warning from Casio about misuse of its laser diodes

Casio has released the following warning statement about laser pointer type devices modified from their projectors. More on the lasers is here and here; more on the modification is here (look for the section on “sawed-off lasers and harvesting”). Emphasis in bold is added by LaserPointerSafety.com.

WARNING!

Casio America, Inc. (“Casio”) has recently learned that potentially dangerous handheld laser pointer devices are being marketed and sold by Wicked Lasers, Ltd. (and possibly others) that are believed to incorporate laser diodes improperly removed from Casio XJ-A series projectors. Casio has never authorized this unintended and potentially dangerous misuse of the light source component of its XJ-A series Projectors.

Casio specifically instructs and warns purchasers of its XJ-A series projectors that disassembly or modification of the built-in laser module is “very dangerous and should never be attempted,” and would like to take this opportunity to remind the laser enthusiast community of that fact. The unauthorized, unintended and potentially dangerous misuse of the laser diodes improperly removed from Casio XJ-A series projectors for use in these handheld lasers, such as Wicked Lasers’ SPYDER III, may create a substantial risk of fire and injury to users and others. Casio intends to pursue Wicked Lasers and any other companies that violate Casio’s rights by misusing components of its XJ-A projectors or other products to the fullest extent of the law.

At the same time, Casio strongly urges consumers to avoid these unauthorized and potentially dangerous “laser pointers” such as the SPYDER III.

Worldwide: Dangerous 1 watt laser on sale for only $200 (+ updates)

A highly hazardous 1 watt handheld laser pointer is now being sold to consumers worldwide, for a price of only USD $200. This is a major increase in power as well as a major decrease in price. (Fall 2010 update: The price was later raised to $299, its current selling price as of Dec. 2010.)

Wicked Lasers advertises the 1 watt Spyder III Pro Arctic as “the most dangerous laser ever created”. This is not far from the truth; it is by far the most dangerous laser affordable by the general public. Previously, such a laser would have cost many thousands of dollars.Click to read more...