Question: Have you ever been hurt when using the lasers?

Thomas Elias Cocolios answered on 20 Mar 2014:

I have not. Is it luck or is it good safety practices? I am going to say the last one!

One of my professors, back at McGill University, had some discolouration spots on his arms and hands from when he manipulated lasers and got his hand in the way too often.

I have also heard dreadful stories of people being hit in the eye. And unlike the laser pointers, which are damaging to some extent but not so dramatically, the lasers we work with do so much damage that one hit might be enough to make you go blind!

I also remember a group I collaborated with a while back. They had been working tirelessly around their setup to make everything work on time for an experiment and finally were caught up with exhaustion. A student was not careful and a tool got in the way of a laser beam and reflected it onto her face. It missed her eye by less than an inch!

What you have to consider as well is that your eye will naturally turn away from a visible laser as a reflex. However, with infrared or ultraviolet, your eye sees nothing and just burns and it is too late.

So if you handle lasers, be smart, be careful!