Consumers are being reminded about the risks of laser pointers as the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) teams up with eBay to shine a light on their dangers.
Chief Radiation Health Scientist at ARPANSA, Rick Tinker said laser pointers with a radiant power above one milliwatt (mW) were prohibited weapons because of their ability to damage the eye and were banned from sale in Australia.
Dr Tinker said a recent UK study illuminated just how dangerous lasers were.
“Scientists found that structural damage to the eye occurs even if a child presents no symptoms after exposure to a laser pointer,” Dr Tinker said.
“There’s a risk that children can access laser pointers above the legal limit because we know that the products are sometimes labelled incorrectly.”
He said a 2013 study by the University of New South Wales found that the vast majority of laser pointers in their sample, 42 out of 44, exceeded the power limit of 1mW.
Dr Tinker said that in partnership with ARPANSA, eBay had taken additional steps to enforce its Product Safety policy that prohibited the sale of laser pointers with a power output above 1mW on its marketplace.
“We encourage other online sellers and retailers to follow eBay’s example and be more vigilant about selling these products because we know they can harm children,” the Chief Radiation Health Scientist said.
In a statement, ARPANSA said lasers could be found in everyday consumer products, including laser pointers, common trade tools, indoor home lightshows or outdoor domestic lighting displays, and children’s toys like toy guns, tops that project laser beams while they spin and toy swords and lightsabres.
Further information on laser safety can be accessed at this PS News link.
