High power laser pointers seized at UK container port. / General Chatting / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: General Chatting

« Previous topic | Next topic »

High power laser pointers seized at UK container port.

Move Thread

LAN_403

Proud Mary

Mon Nov 10 2008, 05:22PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

High power laser pointers seized

BBC News 5 November 2008

High powered laser pointers have been seized by trading standards officers at a container port in Suffolk.

Sixteen boxes headed for a premises in north London were found at Felixstowe Docks earlier this week.

The seized pointers are illegal in the UK as their power rating of 5 milliWatt (mW) is more than the 1mW allowed.

Imports of laser pens that astronomers use for star pointing, have also been targeted by officials after reports of them being used in a dangerous manner.

Last month an Ipswich teenager received a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, for using a green laser pointer to dazzle the pilot of a police helicopter.

Britain's largest pilots union BALPA has warned people misusing these pointers that they are "playing Russian roulette" with the lives of hundreds of passengers.

The organisation has suggested that some laser pens should be classified as weapons.

Suffolk's portfolio holder for public protection, Joanna Spicer said: "These are not the laser pens or pointers you sometimes see in conferences or presentations.

"These items are way more powerful than is legally allowed in this country.

"We have heard in the past week alone what damage can be done to pilots and aircraft when these powerful instruments get into the wrong hands."

________________________________________________ _______________

Laser pointers seized at port
Ipswich Evening Star 04 November 2008

JUST days after an Ipswich man was convicted of using a laser pointer to temporarily blind the pilot of the police helicopter, Suffolk trading standards officers have seized a consignment of similar pointers.

The 16 boxes of the powerful green lasers were intercepted at the Port of Felixstowe and were destined for an importer's premises in North London.

The seized pointers are illegal in this country because their five milliwatt power output is stronger than the 1mw UK limit.

The laser pointers, which are used in the US by astronomers, have hit the headlines recently after a number of cases of individuals blinding helicopter pilots.

Glen Porter, 20, who suffers from psychosis brought about by heavy use of cannabis, shone the high-intensity laser into the helicopter's cockpit as it searched for a missing child in Ipswich.

Porter, of St Augustine's Road, was given a 20-week custodial term suspended for 18 months.

Speaking after the laser pointers were seized in Suffolk, public protection chief Joanna Spicer said: â€œThese are not the laser pens or pointers you sometimes see in conferences or presentations, these items are way more powerful than is legally allowed in this country.

â€œWe have heard in the past week alone what damage can be done to pilots and aircraft when these powerful instruments get into the wrong hands.

â€œI am pleased our trading standards officers have intercepted them before they reached either the high street or the internet and prevented them getting into wider circulation.â€

Backyard Skunkworks

Mon Nov 10 2008, 05:43PM

Registered Member #1262 Joined: Fri Jan 25 2008, 05:22AM
Location: Maryland, USA
Posts: 451

Wow I guess they really are serious about that "high power" laser ban over in the UK.

I hope this isnt a sign of things to come in the US should some random jackass point it at an aircraft...

And I still don't get why they havn't stopped importing PS3s and other blu-ray players

aonomus

Mon Nov 10 2008, 06:38PM

Registered Member #1497 Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801

I'm still in awe at how the UK, US, and AUS seem to be in a neck and neck competition to revoke citizen rights....

They should penalize the idiots, while still making lasers accessible... otherwise you get people making their own, importing the component diodes semi-illegally, etc....

Its the few idiots that ruin the fun for everyone else.

Conundrum

Mon Nov 10 2008, 06:52PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Yeah, next they will start randomly confiscating suspicious looking parcels with electronic parts "because they might contain a laser pen" and "accidentally" adding a Â£30 handling charge. Wouldn't put it past the New Labour scumbags.

-A

uzzors2k

Mon Nov 10 2008, 07:10PM

Registered Member #95 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:57PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 1308

Really, problems like this should be countered by installing something to shield pilots eyes. Acquiring a high power laser is no trouble for anyone inclined to do so, and bans like this merely put an end to the well-meaning users of lasers. (and idiots, which is somewhat good) In the reality the solution to a problem is not eliminating the problem, but solving it.

Proud Mary

Mon Nov 10 2008, 09:39PM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

The UK regulations on laser power levels relate only (so far as I understand it) to lasers on sale in consumer goods where the laser may be directly exposed to the eye - as in laser pointers, builder's levels, and so on.

This is why it was Trading Standards Officers - and not the Police, or Customs - who seized the consignment of green laser pointers.

There is, as yet, no law banning the possession of any sort of laser, nor of importing or possessing any parts - such as laser diodes of any power, so long as they are not an exposed part of a consumer product being offered on sale to others - but of course all this could change overnight if lasers were to be imaginatively incorporated into the latest tabloid "terror" story.

Frosty90

Tue Nov 11 2008, 06:56AM

Registered Member #1617 Joined: Fri Aug 01 2008, 07:31AM
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posts: 139

Here in Aus, we've had quite a few incidents of green lasers being pointed at police helicopters. Once it started happening, there was a sudden knee-jerk reaction and (dont quote me on this), i think ALL laser pointers are 'banned' unless you have a 'good reason' to have one. But as far as im aware, you can still import/buy parts/components, but its only illegal if they're built and ready to go.

Its so unfair

Proud Mary

Tue Nov 11 2008, 07:22AM

Registered Member #543 Joined: Tue Feb 20 2007, 04:26PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4992

I fear the day can not be far off when scientific hobbies like ours will be regulated out of existence as "security risks" and the like.

The overwhelming curiousity which drives many experimenters will probably not be thought "good reason" when it comes to possession of unusual scientific items such as the green laser pointers in the case above - yet it is this very curiousity that has driven the whole history of science.

A person without curiousity about the properties of the world has already one foot in the grave/is a model consumer.

Steve Conner

Tue Nov 11 2008, 12:50PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Yup, it's all part of the collapse of Western civilization.

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob