Were my eyes damaged when a co-worker purposely shined a retail hand held laser barcode scanner in my eyes?
Were my eyes damaged when a co-worker purposely shined a retail hand held laser barcode scanner in my eyes?
I was at work today and a coworker, who isn’t very intelligent, thought it would be funny to shine a barcode laser scanner into my eyes. I quickly turned away, but did see the light for a second or two. Afterwords my left eye experienced minor discomfort, but returned to normal almost immediately. Neither of my eyes appear to be red. I have included a link to a picture of a similar scanner.
img.directindustry.com/images_di/photo-g/hand-held-barcode-scanner-354851.jpg
Please let me know if it is possible if any short term or long term damage has been done.
Thank you for your time.
***Please do not just recommend I go to the optometrist; I have already scheduled an appointment for Monday.
Best answer:
No, it didn’t hurt your eyes, you’ll be fine. When I worked retail me and my coworkers used to flash them in each other’s eyes all the time (can’t say we were the most intelligent group of employees that company had ever seen, but we had fun) and it never hurt my eyes any. If you stare at it for a sustained period of time (like several minutes of non-blinking staring directly into the light) then it may cause some retinal damage, but just a flash here and there won’t hurt anything.
Tags: Barcode, coworker, damaged, eyes, hand, held, Laser, purposely, retail, Scanner, shined, Were
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4 Comments for Were my eyes damaged when a co-worker purposely shined a retail hand held laser barcode scanner in my eyes?
1. Josh | July 12th, 2005 at 11:56 pm
It shouldn’t do any real harm if you weren’t looking at it for too long..But I’m no doctor so you should still go to that appointment
2. Andrew | July 13th, 2005 at 12:34 am
Most likely not, since you only looked at the light for a couple of seconds. Your eye being mildly discomforting is natural, as your cornea might have has a little temporary damage. You should be perfectly fine though, and that appointment with the optometrist was a good move.
3. christy | July 13th, 2005 at 12:37 am
you’re fine if your eye is normal with no pain or watery eye you should be good but tell your dufus co worker not to do that because it could have seriously damaged your eye
4. Biofreak | July 13th, 2005 at 1:35 am
You are fine. Laser barcode scanners are made to be “eye safe”, so it would take some work to hurt yourself with one… optically. If damage was done to your eyes, you would have problems seeing right now or pain. Laser damage (from standard colors… like red), cause immediate damage. The long term effects of a single incident will be nonexistent if there are no short-term effects. I would make sure that you don’t have any unusual areas in your vision. If you do not, then you are fine. The fact that you do not currently have pain or loss of vision, coupled with the fact that it is extraordinarily hard to damage your vision unintentionally with this type of consumer product, makes it extremely unlikely you have done any damage. Although, like anything, chronic exposure may be a different issue, so you should keep away from your idiot coworker.
If you scheduled your optometrist appointment for this specific concern, I would recommend canceling it. Unless, of course, the piece of mind is worth the expense of seeing the optometrist. He will tell you you are fine. By the way, in the case of actual laser eye damage (which yours is not), time is of the essence and you should see a doctor immediately. Waiting two days would be too long. But… again… you have nothing to worry about.
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