Laser pointer warning after boy burns eyes

The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) has warned of the dangers of laser pointers after a boy lost several lines of vision in each eye by shining a hand-held laser pointer into them.

A report in the latest issue of British Medical Journal (June 8) describes how a boy had presented to an eye hospital in the north west with bilateral scotomas. These had resulted from looking directly at the light from a green light laser pointer he had acquired from the internet. This is the first time that a case of sight loss from a laser pointer had been reported to the HPA.