P3D Laser Issues (followup)

[roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (John W Roberts)]

I should mention that the reason I commented on Bob Maxey's post is that
while it may serve as reasonable initial instructions for people who have
never had anything to do with lasers before, I felt it was unreasonably
restrictive in refusing to acknowledge that more might safely be done by
people who know what they're doing, with adequate precautions.

BTW, the CDRH web page mentions that their concerns are based on *two*
(not many) *anecdotal* reports of eye damage from laser pointers. In other
words, they have very little evidence that laser pointers as people are using
them now are really causing eye damage, and what little evidence they have
is indirect and not verified. I think it's good to be cautious, but there's
also such a thing as going overboard on caution. Also, when a caution is given,
care should be taken with the exact wording - we shouldn't say CDRH warns
against *ALL* lasers, unless that's really what they did. (For example,
I don't think they warned against public use of CD-ROM drives with internal
lasers.)

Also BTW, work is going on with display systems that operate by shining
a (low power) laser into the eye, and writing the image directly on the
retina!

John R


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