Damaged eyes?

Status
Not open for further replies.

stephenmadpotato

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 20, 2007
Messages
298
Hi,
I own what claimed to be a 240mw laser, which is actually 31mw. Anyways, earlier today I was cleaning the lens on the laser when I went to take a look at it. I accidently pressed the button about 6" away from my right eye. It went completely blind for about 10 seconds, and then seemed fine. So I continued to clean it. I realized that I have a tiny spot now where ever I look. When my eyes slide out of focus it disapears. However when I try to look at something in detail there is a gray spot. Could I have damaged my eye permanantly with only a 31mw laser :eek:oo:?
 

teaken

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Messages
29
Location
New Zealand
I would recommend removing the batteries next time you're cleaning it. I really hope you haven't done permanent damage, I've heard of people doing the same thing and the spots lasted for up to a few days in some cases.
 

luvlasers

Enlightened
Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
224
Sorry to hear. Afraid you'll get mainly bad news from this thread.

31mW by itself is enough to cause permanent damage. Power levels as low as 10mW can cause serious damage. This would be compounded by the IR light that you'd get from a 240mW ebay laser.

A bit late given the damage has already been done but i'd see an optometrist.
 

FloggedSynapse

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 11, 2006
Messages
208
Location
Madison, WI
D'oh!

The question is how close to the center of vision (macula) did you hit? Yes a laser at that power level can do serious and permanent damage to your retina. Even at 30mW.. however it's quite possible the lasers output varies considerably so you may have blasted your eye with a lot more that 30mW, point blank.
:duh2:

Good luck

PS If you did blast your macula that's very bad news.

See an eye doctor asap, especially if you have vision problems!

PPS Welcome to the tatoo'd retina club
 
Last edited:

ajohnson

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jul 1, 2006
Messages
112
You didn't say the color/frequency of your laser. If its a greenie or other DPSS then you might have one of the "ebay specials" that doesn't have an IR filter and may have 30mw of green but much much more infrared output. I'm only saying this because you say it only appears to be in that range.

If that's the case then you could have easily blasted yourself with a high mw of light and you should go get checked out.

Sorry to say so
 

The_LED_Museum

*Retired*
Joined
Aug 12, 2000
Messages
19,414
Location
Federal Way WA. USA
If this is the "240mW" laser that's been advertised on Ebay as of late, the infrared content is surprisingly low - I have one of these and determined this via spectroscopy.
 

TITAN1833

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
3,267
Location
Dark! Dank! Murky! England.
stephenmadpotato, look into the mirror do you see this "I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON".and now write 1000 lines "TAKE BATTERIES OUT WHEN CLEANING MY LASER".hope you are ok.
 
Last edited:

comozo

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 30, 2003
Messages
568
That's why FDA approved class 3b lasers have a delayed on switch and why laser pointers are only 5mw so's you don't damage your eyes accidentally.
 

picrthis

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
Messages
281
Location
Planet Earth
Well atleast you weren't looking down the barrel of a loaded .45 gun while cleaning it and pulled the trigger. Rule # 1 ALWAYS make it safe before doing an cleaning/maintenance. Guns, Knives, Lasers, power tools, etc. If that was a gun you could have lost your life. Sorry to hear about it, but you must act safely to avoid injury. I hope as time goes by, your sight goes back to normal.
 

stephenmadpotato

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 20, 2007
Messages
298
Yeah, this REALLY sucks. Its day 2 and its gotten a "little" better. It was quite stupid that this happened in the first place. If its still here the day after tomorrow I'll get it looked at., even though theres not much they can do. BTW the wave length is 532nm which means yes it was a green. I actually dont think this will affect me in sunlight, when I was outside this morning I didn't notice it. It seems like it may only be in lit rooms. Let this be a warning to all of you, DO NOT SHINE LASERS IN PEOPLES EYES UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHAT SO EVER!. If this apears permenant then I will take it apart and check for an IR filter, lets hope I dont have to :( But if so, I'm going to report this to ebay and maybe then they will stop people from selling people cheap uninfrared-filtered lasers.
 
Last edited:

2xTrinity

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 10, 2006
Messages
2,386
Location
California
Yeah, this REALLY sucks. Its day 2 and its gotten a "little" better. It was quite stupid that this happened in the first place. If its still here the day after tomorrow I'll get it looked at., even though theres not much they can do. BTW the wave length is 532nm which means yes it was a green. I actually dont think this will affect me in sunlight, when I was outside this morning I didn't notice it. It seems like it may only be in lit rooms. Let this be a warning to all of you, DO NOT SHINE LASERS IN PEOPLES EYES UNLESS YOU HATE THEM. If this apears permenant then I will take it apart and check for an IR filter, lets hope I dont have to :( But if so, I'm going to report this to ebay and maybe then they will stop people from selling people cheap uninfrared-filtered lasers.
IR is not going to be as much of a problem as green, in any case, because it spreads out quickly like a flashlight beam -- even at close range, the total amount of IR that you would intercept would be negligible compared to the green. The problem with IR is that it is invisible, and refracts at a different rate than green -- that means if you are using the laser around glass, or something that unintentionally behaves like a lens at close range, the IR could be hitting your eye for a long stretch of time without you ever realizing it, or reacting to it. That is where the potential danger lies, but the potential for damage to be done by the green itself, even in a laser with perfect filtering, is much higher in any case. I would personally be more worried about a 35mW green laser with a perfect IR filter, than a 5 or 10mW laser with crappy filtering. For one thing it focuses a lot sharper on the retina, than IR light, and more significantly it is more collimated, so if you get hit at all, you get the entire beam.
 

Daedal

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 13, 2006
Messages
179
Really sorry to hear about this, and hope your eye gets better soon.

GL;
DDL

P.S. : The quotes still show the edited post... :(
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top