Alert as lasers damage children’s eyes

Research on patients aged between eight and 15 by leading eye experts at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and Sheffield Children’s Hospital found that shining laser light directly into their eyes had resulted in mild to severe long-term harm to vision.

In the worst case, an eight-year-old boy was left with permanent scars visible at the centre of his vision as a result of a laser beam flashed in his eye for no more than a few seconds.

He can now only read the largest letter on a standard Snellen eye chart from three metres, whereas someone with normal vision can identify the letter from a distance of 60m.

Although laser products are regulated within the European Union, there concerns about devices bought online from further afield which may be significantly more powerful and less clearly marked.

Fahd Quhill, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at the Royal Hallamshire, said: “Misuse of these laser products can lead to irreversible damage to the eye. The retina is a very sensitive part of the eye and once damage is done, it is irreparable.”

EU regulators group lasers into classes according to their potential for harm.

The former Health Protection Agency, now part of Public Health England, advised that products sold to the public for use as laser pointers should generally be restricted to class 1 or 2 devices, with laser power less than 1 milliwatt (mW), and be accompanied by clear safety advice.

But Mr Quhill said: “One of the laser pointers that caused the retinal damage in one of our child cases was 72mW and all measured were more than 40mW of power and thus class 3B.”

John O’Hagan, of Public Health England, said: “For many years we have been concerned about the availability of these lasers. The markings on the devices and the packaging are often misleading. Output powers may be considerably higher than marked.

“There are European proposals to control the sale of handheld laser products that may cause injury. However, these proposals will only be relevant to products placed on the market in Europe; they will not cover personal imports over the internet from outside the European Union.”