Query for WA people - laser pointers

[Rob_K]

Hi - I'm trying to get my head around Western Australia's laser pointer laws. There seem to be no specific laws or regs used by police to govern use of laser pointers of any power, but the Radiation Safety Act 1975 says you cannot own, sell or possess laser pointers, and that licences are required for Class 3B or higher (whatever that is).

I've been going round and round with Aus/NZ Standards etc, but I suppose that what I need to know is how astronomy people in WA that use laser pointers (eg at outreach events, night sky tours etc) 'legalise' their activity, or indeed whether that is required.

The Radiation Safety Act is administered by the UWA and seems to be about use of lasers in laboratory/workplace settings.

Thanks!

Rob

[raymo]

That's not quite right Rob.The 1975 act only outlaws class 3B and 4 for public use.They are only used legally by researchers and scientists and the like,
who have to be trained and licenced.
Class 1 and 2, [<1mw] are fine for unlicenced public use.
Unfortunately, many of the cheap laser pointers that can be bought in Asia
are class 3B, and can be very dangerous indeed. If you have a laser pointer
that no longer has its descriptive label, or it has become illegible, you can
take it to the UWA for testing, and if it is too powerful, they will bond a neutral density filter to it.
raymo

[Rob_K]

Terrific, thanks Raymo.

[deanm (Dean)]

Originally Posted by raymo

Class 1 and 2, [<1Mw] are fine for unlicenced public use.

1 Mw?!

Yikes!

And I was concerned that my eBay-import 1mw might be a bit sharpish..!

Dean

[raymo]

OOPS!!!!!
raymo

[deanm (Dean)]

Bzzzzzt.... Bzzzzzzt......

!!

[raymo]

Death Raymo sound effect.
raymo

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

I believe the west Australian police treat them as 'controlled weapons' - similar to swords, crossbows, etc, so those of us up at Perth observatory who use them have been registered with the police, and the pointers purchased through the observatory.
Seems a bit ridiculous. Although airline pilots are far better qualified to comment, i suspect the hazard posed to aviation is overstated. I flew in to Delhi about a year ago, and there were at least three idiots shining green lasers at the plane. Landed safely!
Cheers,
Andrew.

[raymo]

A bit of a grey area. The problem is not so much the <1mw pointers that
are not banned in W.A. but the >1mw ones typically bought in Asia.
Many of them are 10 or 20mw, or occasionally even higher. Its made worse
by the fact that class 3B pointers are typically only labelled as <30mw, so
you don't really know how powerful it is.
Andrew, I don't know about a <1mw pointer, but I can assure you that the hazard threat is most definitely not overstated in the case of a class 3B one,
having been zapped extremely briefly by one wielded by a stall owner in
a market in KL. I got a very nasty equivalent to a welding flash, putting a dampener on the remainder of my trip. I imagine had the zap been a little longer[say half a second] my eye would have been damaged or destroyed.
raymo

[deanm (Dean)]

With 1 mW lasers, the human eye has sufficient time to blink before physical damage occurs.

The problem with more powerful devices is that the damage is done before you can reflexively blink.

The inverse-square law means energy deposited drops off rapidly with distance, but it doesn't diminish to zero (or zero risk).

Dean

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

The last time I checked, <5mW and must belong to a registered Astronomical association.

Otherwise <1mW.

[pixelsaurus (Mike)]

Re NZ regs fyi
http://www.horoastronomy.org.nz/blog...rlaserpointers