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All of the high power lasers I've seen are fully capable of blinding people off tertiary or quaternary reflections from even relatively low albedo surfaces.

Even closing your eyes is not sufficient for some of them. They can light up your eyelids brightly enough to cause damage even reflected twice.

So even a glancing contact will give you a full dazzle, blinding you for at least a few minutes, and possibly permanent damage if you're unlucky.




Are lasers at those power levels generally available to the public?


https://m.laserpointerpro.com/attribute/power_3000mw-lasers_...

You can find them all over eBay and Alibaba in even higher wattages. I've seen 15w


Yep. Trivial to buy, cheaper used from EBay. And you can get infrared ones that will fry eyes without even noticing bright lights first. Your eye simply goes dark forever.

Industrial lasers are terribly dangerous.




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