Although the risk of permanent eye injury from a laser pointer may be small, a person receiving even a transient eye exposure will experience a bright flash, a dazzling effect, which is likely to cause distraction and temporary loss of vision in the affected eye and possibly after-images. The time taken to recover from these effects will vary for different people and will also be dependent on the ambient light level at the time of exposure. Medical attention should only be sought if after-images persist for hours, or if a disturbance in reading vision is apparent. In general, laser pointers are classified as Class 1, Class 2 or Class 3B products. However, national authorities making measurements of the power output of these lasers have noted that significant misclassification is occurring by manufacturers.
More accurate classification needs to be enforced by appropriate authorities.
On Laser Pointers WHO considers the professional use of a Class 1 or Class 2 laser pointer as a training aid to be justified, and regards these classes of laser product as being adequate for such use. The use of Class 3B laser pointers up to 5 mW may be justified for some applications in the workplace where the user has received adequate training. Lasers in children's toys should be restricted to class 1 and class 2 laser pointers should not be sold to children. On the General Commercial Availability of Lasers Sale of laser products to the general public should be restricted to Class 1 or Class 2 devices and should be sold with sufficient accompanying information to enable the user to operate the product in a safe manner. Laser pointers higher than Class 2 are considered too powerful for general use as laser pointers and present an unacceptable risk in the hands of consumers because they may cause eye injury .