Table of contents:
- The danger of a toy laser that turns out to be blind
- Toy lasers with blue and purple rays are more dangerous
Laser pointer usually used as a complementary tool in presentations. Unfortunately, these laser toys are also often misused for the wrong purpose. Fanatical football team fans often smuggle this toy to shoot its beam directly from a distance right into the eyes of the opposing team players. The goal is none other than, to confuse opponents and disrupt the course of the match. But even though it seems trivial, the dangers of toy lasers should not be underestimated. Directly aiming the laser beam on the eye can cause blindness.
The danger of a toy laser that turns out to be blind
The FDA as the POM agency in the United States which is equivalent to the BPOM in Indonesia states that the danger of toy lasers used carelessly can cause serious eye injuries, even blindness. In fact, the effect can be even more dangerous than staring directly at the sun.
According to Dan Hewett, health promotion officer at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, the dangers of a toy laser aimed directly at the eye can damage the eye in just an instant. Especially if the power is strong enough. In addition, the effect will be much worse if done at night when the pupils are wide open.
Exposure to light levels of laser light for a short time can cause temporary vision loss. This is because laser light produces heat energy that can damage eye tissue. This is what happened to a boy in Greece. He became blind after repeatedly staring at the laser beam pointer when playing.
Quoted from Live Science, the boy's retina was reportedly perforated due to laser light burns. Even after a year and a half of recovering from surgery, her eyesight could not return to normal.
Toy lasers with blue and purple rays are more dangerous
Source: Medical Daily
The FDA limits sales of laser pointers to a maximum power of 5 milliwatts. However, laser pointers sold by the roadside or online shops may not include the proper label, or they may have a higher energy power than is indicated on the label. Thus, it is difficult for consumers to know for sure how strong the energy power of the laser pointer is.
Moreover, quoting from the American Academy of Opthalmology, a toy laser that glows blue and purple has a more potentially dangerous effect than a red or green laser.
This is because the human eye is actually less sensitive to blues and purples than red and green. This keeps your eyes from blinking or turning away as quickly as they were exposed to the green and red light.
Because your eyes are more "resilient" to exposure to blue and purple light, there is a chance for you to be able to continue staring at the light for a longer period of time without realizing it. The resulting injury is likely to be even more potentially fatal.
