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would a normal red laser light hurt you?
i was playing with my laser light earlier and i put it on my dad's leg and he said to stop cause he said it would give him skin cancer or a tumor or something but i didn't think so. so i want to know if a normal red laser can hurt you and how.
Yes, it can hurt you. Specifically, it can hurt your eyes. Depending on how bright your laser is, it can be very dangerous to your vision. Most lasers are less than 5mW. Anything more than about 1mW can do damage to your eyes. But, between 1mW and 5mW, the damage will occur slower than you can blink. So your blink reflex will cause you to close your eyes if you get that much light in your eye, and that blink reflex will protect you to some extent. If you continue to stare into it, it can damage your eye. Your laser pointer is likely less than 5mW, but if it is more than 5mW, it can cause damage faster than you can blink. So above 5mW, lasers are extremely dangerous to your vision.
Can it hurt your leg? Not really. If you had a 1W (=1000mW) laser, then it might be able to give you a burn. The damage would be very similar to touching something hot. I have done that before (on my hand) and it hurts, but it does not do any lasting damage. If you had 10W or 100W, then you could get some very severe burns. But you do not have any of these, as those are very expensive and tightly regulated lasers that are not commonly available. Your laser will not cause burns. It will also not cause cancer. Cancer can be caused by UV light, but your laser will not make any UV light at all. So the risk of doing any type of damage to your leg is zero.
Again, to recap, typical red laser pointers are dangerous when they get in your eye (or someone else's) but they are completely safe on your skin.
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