Shining a Laser on Bare Skin.

Like many people, I have a laser pointer. In fact, I am holding it right now, as fate would have it.

Anyway, I don't have much use for it otherwise. So I shine it on random things in my house, including my own skin.

Could I be doing any harm by doing this? I know a laser is light, all one wavelength. But it's not dangerous, like UV radiation, is it?

BTW, some time ago, probably well over 30 years now, when I was still in high school, I saw a doctor on TV use it to relieve pain. Some poor guy came into his office in terrible chronic pain, and the doc swept a laser over his limbs, thru his clothing in fact. They interviewed him after that, and he said it helped a little. What was that all about?

And BTW, I sometimes shine it in my mouth (I love the way it makes my teeth and mouth light up). Should I do this too?

 

I'm no scientist or doctor so don't listen to me.
I am pretty sure a laser pointer will do no harm but lasers can be altered to increase or decrease wavelength and focus .

Think of it this way. A magnifying glass is extremely safe. But focus it on a single spot and you can burn shit up pretty quick.

 

Lasers come in different classes so you want to be sure what class you are dealing with.
I work with lasers and recently we had a woman not wearing her protective laser glasses and she ended up burning a tiny hole in her retina.
Granted she is not forever blind but she will always have a black dot somewhere in her vision as it can't be fixed.

Class 1 Safe.
Class 1M Safe provided optical instruments are not used.
Class 2 Visible lasers. Safe for accidental exposure (< 0.25 s).
Class 2M Visible lasers. Safe for accidental exposure (< 0.25 s) providing optical instruments* are not used.
Class 3R Not safe. Low risk.
Class 3B Hazardous. Viewing of diffuse reflection** is safe.
Class 4 Hazardous. Viewing of diffuse reflection is also hazardous. Fire risk.

 

It should be quite safe on skin for a short and occasional duration, but NEVER shine it into your eyes. Even the safest of lasers can quickly damage the rods and cones that make up the optical surface of your retina.

 

Hang on. Let me google it and come up with some shit that makes me sound like I know stuff

 

it's dangerous if you have a cat. surefire way to get yourself scratched.

 

Well what about laser eye surgery then?
I've only had refractive lasik, which is much more intense.

They held my eye open with forceps and poured acid into my eye over the cornea for 4 seconds, after 4 seconds they washed it away and it was now delicate enough to buzz with the laser.

You smell burning cells much like your hair being burned.

 

you can easily light a cigarette at the source of the ones they use at concerts

 

Pointers are harmless unless you aim it at your eye for a long period of time. They're just not very powerful and aren't meant to be. If you want to assemble a laser for actually burning stuff, you'll need to hack apart some DVD recorder drives, build a driver circuit and focus them with a lens to the same spot. Lots of people on Yoo Hoo Toob are doing this.

 

I like the strobe light at concerts as soon as it comes on I turn to whoever is next to me and start waving with a dorky smile lol. It's so stupid but it's funny lol

 

OMG!...
My neighbor had Lasik surgery, so he wouldn't need glasses. His eyes have been messed up ever since. And they keep getting worse.
He sees now about like I did after I had the stroke. I think next time we go shopping in the city, I'm driving. He's scaring me.

 

My surgery was to shape the cornea so that I could wear prescription contact lenses which are the only way I can see is to wear them. If I don't wear them I am legally blind. I can get around, I can see things in the room but I'll never be able to read or see with clarity it's like looking through opaque glass. With my special expensive contacts they are 100% shaped for my corneas, they are painful though and takes a lot to get used to. They aren't the flimsy contacts everybody else gets to wear. Mine are hardened permeated contacts. They sit it one shape forever, if you pinch them you will physically hear them go crack. It's a 1mm thick piece of plastic in my eye.

 

Wow, sorry to hear that...hoping maybe technology will advance enough that you can get a better fit. Soon...

 

you can still carve your retinas, and blind yourself with them, so avoid pointing it at reflective surfaces.
cats love to chase them, but i always try to be very careful not to point where it might hit their eyes directly or be reflected into them.

a more powerful one, inside a light tight box, and controlled by a computer, makes nice clean and super accurate cuts in sheet stock of various materials and thinkneses.
as a model builder this interests me, along with desk top cnc milling machines, and 3d printers.