[babygene]

"These lasers should be outlawed right away"

Nope... These 4.99mw green lasers are limited to that power specifically because at that power they DO NOT do damage to the human eye. They don't do damage even from across the room, much less a mile away (because of the divergence of the beam)

There are many semiconductor lasers available today that are much more dangerous that are in the IR spectrum, where the power in measured in watts, not milliwatts. These IR lasers are invisible to the human eye, and will permanently blind you is a few milliseconds. For that matter, a 2 watt IR laser will catch paper on fire in a second or two.

Anyone who is inappropriately playing with a green laser pointer is doing just that: "playing" It makes a good news story, but that's about it.

A serious terrorist would find something more appropriate for the task at hand.

[Hunble]

There are many semiconductor lasers available today that are much more dangerous that are in the IR spectrum, where the power in measured in watts, not milliwatts. These IR lasers are invisible to the human eye, and will permanently blind you is a few milliseconds.

I can testify to the dangers of an IR laser. After years of working with YAG lasers with the Army, I caught a reflection and received a tiny burn spot in my eye. Since an IR laser is invisible, I did not know it had happened until much later.

Today, I can only detect the burn spot when viewing a white wall. Other than that, it has not been a problem.

However, I learned a very valuable lesson about the dangers of IR lasers.