Revellers at an outdoor rave in Moscow were nursing more than hangovers this week when the laser show that accompanied music at the festival started blinding them.
The light show was at Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhac, near Moscow. So far 29 people have been taken to hospital, with what is severe scarring on their retinas.
Speaking to Kommersant, a local Russian newspaper, an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) at one of the hospitals said: "They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them. Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80%, and regaining it is already impossible." Ouch!
Laser-eye treatment
The laser damage is said to have happened because of the use of outdoor lasers indoors.
Torrential rain meant that the open air festival wasn't actually open air, but in a tent. The reflection of the lasers in the tent hit the crowd instead of the sky and damaged many of the partygoers' vision.
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pmurph5
July 16th
1. Kommersant now reports the injuries are not retinal burns, but hemorrhages (still bad but not as bad).
The cause of these unusual and widespread injuries appears to be a pulsed laser. These emit short, powerful bursts of light. They are fine for sky and overhead use but NEVER are intended for audience scanning. Due to the rain, the pulsed laser was aimed directly at the audience (it was not a reflection off the top of the tent). Video of the event confirms the laser aiming and the pulsed nature (look for dots where the laser hits a wall).
Audience scanning is legal and common, and is even covered by international science/engineering standards (IEC 60825-3). In this case, the use of a pulsed laser was at fault.
Obviously, someone at the rave did not know what they were doing. The ultimate blame is on the laser operators. They should always be in attendance to monitor the laser use, and they should know, absolutely and irrefutably, NEVER use pulsed lasers for audience scanning.
-- Patrick Murphy, International Laser Display Assn., www.laserist.org
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