From another site, an expert on laser safety (a former "Laser Safety Officer"),
says:
Infrared between 750 nm and 1400 nm will go through the cornea, lens, and vitreous and aqueous humors and arrive focused on the retina. Above a milliwatt or so, this can cause damage. Above 5 mW or so, it can cause almost instant damage.
Now the PARD IR illuminator lasers run 850nm at 5W, so well above the "instant damage" danger zone (in fact it's 1000 times stronger than the "instant damage" level).
I think we need to take this extremely seriously.
I know that there are claims made that the use of VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) lasers in the newer illuminators means that there is not as much danger, but I've seen data that would suggest otherwise.
For instance,
Honeywell says:
Honeywell VCSEL products cannot produce a beam capable of causing serious skin injury;however, without proper safeguards, they can cause eye damage. In a worst case exposure (direct exposure with the eye focused at a distance), a laser beam is focused by the eye in such a way that the beam is concentrated 100,000 times before striking the retina. Therefore, a 10 milliwatt/cm2 laser beam would result in a 1000 watt/cm2 exposure to the retina, more than enough to cause damage
Note that a 10mW beam is 500x weaker than the beam the PARD NV008 can produce.
From my reading it seems as if the greatest danger to us, as users of these products, is to look into the illuminator from a close distance. The damage appears to lessen the further you are away from the source. So you need to be
extra, extra careful handling these units, and to repeat: NEVER let a child anywhere near one!
NuOptic
gives guidelines for working with IR illuminators (that you find on night security cameras based on LEDs
not lasers):
Eye Safety For Illuminators
The person with the greatest risk of exposure is the installer him/herself. This is the second circumstance under which someone may be exposed to the illuminator at close distances. The installer is inherently very close to the light source while wiring up, mounting, and adjusting the illuminator. Again, simple guidelines should be followed:
•Perform all mounting and electrical connection work with power disconnected at the source
•Operate from behind or to the side of the illuminator when it is powered
•If possible, work with an assistant on the ground for aiming or testing the system
•Remain especially vigilant when working with infrared illuminator
