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I've been working with lasers for a decade now, no problems - up until a few months back. I had the Worst Cold I've ever had, and had to drag myself in to the

I've been working with lasers for a decade now, no problems - up until a few months back. I had the Worst Cold I've ever had, and had to drag myself in to the studio on a couple of occasions to run a couple of cutting jobs. Deadlines. Feeling as awful as I was, I had a couple of Ibuprofen (Advil in the States, I believe) and tried to get on. Checking a job that was cutting I peeked at the machine - which has a protective clear plastic screen, as I have a thousand times before - and then got on with things. When I walked away from the machine I realised I had a small artefact in the centre of my left eye's vision. It was clearly the reflected light from the cut, in a v-shape, about 3mm high at arm's length. Sort of like the seed of a visual migraine. It didn't go away. It wasn't huge, but it was incredibly bothersome - if I winked with that eye open and tried to read, this artefact would block the centre of focus, making reading very difficult. It still didn't go away. I started researching light blindness, lasers and even reactions to nuclear flashes and such, trying to ascertain whether I was now permanently slightly-blind. In this search I happened upon research from the early seventies that attributed similar blindness artefacts from Ibuprofen consumption. Months later, it's barely visible and - as you say - my brain's routed around the problem, but I still see it in certain light conditions and I think it might be with me for the rest of my life. A bit of a bugger. - ed incidentally, i've had a few visual migraines spurred by looking into the machine over the years - low light gloomy conditions (as now here in LDN) and a bright point of light seems to set them off for me. I've always checked with clients who want to view the process whether or not they have visual migraines, and warn them if so. Now I also ask if they're on Ibuprofen :\

tptacek 7y ago
Reading this, it really seems like you entered this conversation by amplifying someone who was mocking the thread for expressing safety concerns with laser cutters, and closed it out by telling a story about how you quite probably permanently injured yourself with a laser cutter.
- detritus 7y ago
  I agreed with the sentiment of the guy, not his tone, and my experience here is a peculiar one more likely to do with the particular medication than an unsafe laser set up - the paper from the 70s indicates ibuprofen has this affect on people without lasers too. As I say, I've been doing this for years and have done exactly what I did literally thousands (tens of thousands?) of times. The machine I have is a commercially manufactured, slightly expensive thing that is compliant with regulations covering the EU and US. It's not some shoddy DIY adventure. I put it down to one of those statistically unlikely fuck yous that life throws out. One day I'll add it as a footnote to my version of a homemade machine and we can both be happy. *shrug - ed added a line in
  - tptacek 7y ago
    Isn't this basically what people said about SawStops ("I've ripped thousands of boards and..."), and then it turns out that the cost of all table saw injuries exceeds the total value of the table saw market? People are really mad about SawStops, too! They're patented! But like, it's not crazy to suggest that nobody should have a table saw without a SawStop, and that it would be irresponsible to sell such a saw to the public.
    - detritus 7y ago
      Just to clarify - I have all of the safety measures in place, and am a 'respecter of safety' (to misquote Larry David) - my tale of woe here is specifically in reference to the Ibuprofen angle, which was such an outlier case. However, I don't think over-wrought fears about safety should preclude the sharing of information on practical, industrious subjects (unless we're talking explosives or whatever..). I do think that concerns should be higlighted and manuals and media updated to reflect.
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      "then it turns out that the cost of all table saw injuries exceeds the total value of the table saw market?" I don't understand this comparison. The benefit from people using table saws is not equal to the "total value of the table saw market". I mean, if it was, even if there were no accidents, we could improve society by just not bothering making them.

tptacek 7y ago

Reading this, it really seems like you entered this conversation by amplifying someone who was mocking the thread for expressing safety concerns with laser cutters, and closed it out by telling a story about how you quite probably permanently injured yourself with a laser cutter.

detritus 7y ago
I agreed with the sentiment of the guy, not his tone, and my experience here is a peculiar one more likely to do with the particular medication than an unsafe laser set up - the paper from the 70s indicates ibuprofen has this affect on people without lasers too. As I say, I've been doing this for years and have done exactly what I did literally thousands (tens of thousands?) of times. The machine I have is a commercially manufactured, slightly expensive thing that is compliant with regulations covering the EU and US. It's not some shoddy DIY adventure. I put it down to one of those statistically unlikely fuck yous that life throws out. One day I'll add it as a footnote to my version of a homemade machine and we can both be happy. *shrug - ed added a line in
- tptacek 7y ago
  Isn't this basically what people said about SawStops ("I've ripped thousands of boards and..."), and then it turns out that the cost of all table saw injuries exceeds the total value of the table saw market? People are really mad about SawStops, too! They're patented! But like, it's not crazy to suggest that nobody should have a table saw without a SawStop, and that it would be irresponsible to sell such a saw to the public.
  - detritus 7y ago
    Just to clarify - I have all of the safety measures in place, and am a 'respecter of safety' (to misquote Larry David) - my tale of woe here is specifically in reference to the Ibuprofen angle, which was such an outlier case. However, I don't think over-wrought fears about safety should preclude the sharing of information on practical, industrious subjects (unless we're talking explosives or whatever..). I do think that concerns should be higlighted and manuals and media updated to reflect.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    "then it turns out that the cost of all table saw injuries exceeds the total value of the table saw market?" I don't understand this comparison. The benefit from people using table saws is not equal to the "total value of the table saw market". I mean, if it was, even if there were no accidents, we could improve society by just not bothering making them.