A 15 year old boy was seriously damaged eye while playing with a laser pointer he bought on the internet, doctors said warn that dangerous high-power versions of these devices are available online.
An ophthalmologist described it as "a legitimate threat to public health."
The boy's case is published in Thursday's issue of the journal New England Journal of Medicine by doctors who treated him at the Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne, Switzerland.
The case follows two reports of similar accidents in June. British doctors say a teenager was injured eye with a high power laser pointer, and a British doctor reported vision problems for several months after he was hit by light emitted a pointer used by his 7 years.
Laser pointers are devices that resemble feathers and emit a narrow beam of laser light. They are used at conferences to highlight information during presentations, for example.
pointers sold in the U.S. are subject to a power limit set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English) so as not to cause instant damage to the eyes, although it is possible there is damage if exposure is prolonged.
laser pointers that go beyond the limits of the FDA, however, are available online.
The Swiss child acquired the internet got a laser pointer 30 times more potent than the FDA limit. He bought it to blow up balloons and making holes in paper and sneakers from his sister, doctors said.
One day the child was playing with the pointer in front of a mirror to create a light show, but the green beam accidentally hit his eyes several times.
vision in his left eye was so affected that he could not count the fingers of another person to more than one meter (three feet) away. His other eye also had a severe loss of vision, so serious that it was difficult to read a newspaper, said in an e-mail Dr. Martin Schmid, one of the doctors who brought the case.
Tests showed that the child had a hemorrhage in the left eye and several small scars on the right.
"This is a legitimate threat to public health," said Williams, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. "Parents should be aware that lasers are inadequate and available through the Internet," he said.
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