Use of laser pointers and the related hazards

Abstract

The wide use of laser pointers must be compatible to the national and international 'avoid hazards' rules. Thus the owners and users of these lasers must follow all the safety standards, in order to avoid an ocular over-exposure to themselves or to the near audience persons. Many users are not laser specialists and do not know all the safety procedures or the exposure limits. For an average user the meaning of the warning label is not so clear, he may understand the wavelength and the output power, but what is the class of the laser. The word 'danger' in the pointer's label is clear, but for some young persons is the motive to use the pointer as the optical 'weapon' against the eyes of other people. The subject of our report is the identification of some hazard situations on the pointers use, starting with the basic hazard analysis, followed by application of optical metrology with calculations and measurements of the exposure levels and ending with the comparison to the maximum permissible exposure limits, in order to make clear that in some applications the hazard is a strong possibility. Thus a specialist consultant may take the advantage from our results and explain to the users that the laser pointer must be used with all the safety procedures and with the necessary care.