Russian Ravers lose partial sight from lasers

[Dan Hintz]

Some moron event planner erected some tents at a rave in Russia when rain threatened the festivities. Of course, this caused quite a bit of the laser light to end up reflected back into people's eyes. It also didn't help that the halfwits used a too-powerful laser for the space involved...
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2008-07-14T120028Z_01_L14529725_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-RUSSIA-RAVE.XML

[Frank Corker]

I've actually only been to two places where they had these things shooting around all over the place in night clubs (I've grown too old to go in the damned dens of iniquity now :( (sigh) ). Anyway I dreaded the thought of it hitting something reflective and bouncing back into my eyes, I remember thinking.... am I the only one who sees there being a danger here.

By the report at the link you showed it seems that there were quite a few that have had eye damage, what a dreadful thing to happen, I guess for them the laser lights won't be so cool anymore.

[Bill Cunningham]

YA I had to tell my idiot ex son-in-law that shining one of those laser pointers in someones face can get him charged with assault! If he'd shined in my daughter or grandkids face 'I' would have been charged with assault!!!!:mad: Just because they sell em in the dollar store for a buck, does not make them toys!

[Dan Hintz]

Frank, I'm not sure what the rules are like in he UK, but here in the US the shows are pretty darn safe. Any time a laser show is put on (such as in the clubs), someone has to go through the entire range of possible laser motion looking for reflective objects. The club lasers are obviously stronger than a typical hand-held laser pointer, but not by a whole lot... fog machines provide the reflective mist necessary for seeing the beams rather than sheer laser power. you wouldn't want to stare directly into the beam for any length of time, but a fast shot across the eye won't be a problem.


Bill, continuing what I was just saying to Frank, a fast shot across the eye with those hand-held pointers from the dollar store are not a major issue. Granted, I wouldn't expect someone to stare into one for any appreciable length of time, but the eye's blink reflex will take care of any accidental hits. A person would need to consciously stare into the pointer for a length of time to do any real damage.

[Darren Null]

It's the same as laser engraving, but with much less powerful kit. The normal disco/concert lasers are never going to do any damage because they're not powerful enough and -here's the important bit- they're always moving. Always. To do retinal damage, the 'indoor' lasers have to stay on the same part of a retina for an appreciable fraction of a second. Provided the operator knows what they're doing, there's no danger whatsoever as long as the motors that move the mirrors to bounce the beams are going. Further, for indoor use, even if the beams do freeze, the lasers should not be powerful enough that they can cause damage faster than the blink reflex can kick in...1/3 of a second (the blink reflex is quicker than that, but you add a bit for drunk people). If the beams do freeze, the show should be shut down immediately, just to be on the safe side, because there's always one who will try to outstare a laser beam.

With the Russian thing, that was another order of laser altogether- one that was built to put patterns on *clouds*. They're used to attract people to raves -you can see them from MILES off- and should never be pointed anywhere but straight up. Outdoors. And you should turn them off if it's raining because you can get specular reflections from raindrops. They are easily powerful enough to burn a retina in one pass when the beam is moving. The Russian muppets put the machine indoors in a tent. I'm not big on licencing and stopping people doing what they like, but the simple fact is that these Russian techs did not understand what they were playing with. More power = better.....works for amps and speakers and most other disco equipment. Just not for lasers. Tragic, and could have easily been avoided if just 1 tech there had read the bloody manual.