The danger of playing with a laser pointer
Despite the controls that public administrations exercise on toys to ensure that they are suitable for children, there are thousands of objects that slip into the market under the appearance of toys and that can be dangerous. A good example are the laser pointers.
Although in some establishments they are marketed as a toy, the laser pointers They can cause serious problems for children. It may seem that that Red light It has no danger, but in fact it has a very detrimental effect on the eyes of the little ones, since they do not know their risk.
This is what a study conducted by the ophthalmologist David Almedia and that collects the American Academy of Pediatrics. According to this work, parents usually do not give the importance they should to laser pointers. However, these products can cause serious problems such as permanent blurred vision and even complete loss of long-term vision.
Eye damage caused by laser pointers
Dr. Almeida based his study on cases of patients from 9 to 16 years in which the game with laser pointers ended up causing serious problems in the ocular tissue. These problems, in general, were caused in the back of the eye, that is, the area that is sensitive to light.
The study showed that these cases happen more frequently what they believe. Dr. Almeida says that most parents think that these problems caused by the laser pointer only occur "once in a million." It clarifies that although the cases of total vision loss they are rare, it is a negligence to think that the exposure of an eye to this beam of light is not going to have any consequence.
Never look at the laser pointer
Experts emphasize that the risk lies in looking directly at the beam of the laser pointer is the most dangerous what can be done. Either frontally or reflected in a mirror, if the light of this article, the retina suffers when it is reached in this way by the laser pointer. The head of the study also explains that "the retina is everything".
Therefore Almeida recalls one of the basic rules in the use of lasers: not to point directly at the eye. "If the laser reaches the eye at an angle, you may not notice anything and it is completely asymptomatic, but if it hits the eye, it could suffer from a dramatic loss of sight immediately. never recover", sentence.
In addition, he warns that, at present, few treatments really have an effect in cases of damage to the retina caused by laser pointers. Therefore, the best thing is always to prevent and, if you decide to buy one of these "toys", you have to remember the children rules of use and always watch that they comply.
Labeling problems in laser pointers
This investigation also tried to find out the origin of the laser pointers that parents gave to their children. Dr. Almeida was greatly surprised in this regard since most of these products were distributed through office supplies companies and online sales portals.
Especially the acquisition through the internet made it more possible to buy an item that does not suit the recommended health standards.
Previous studies had already shown that one of the fundamental problems of these products is their labeling. It specifies that the power of the laser is between 1 and 5 milliwatts, figure that in principle does not represent a problem for the eyes. However these laser pointers actually have a power greater than 5 milliwatts, which is quite dangerous for the eyeball.
At this point, ophthalmology professionals complain about how easy it is to acquire one of these products online. Therefore they ask for a more regulation in the distribution of laser pointers and greater attention by parents when buying them.
Damián Montero
