Feds issue “draft guidance” to restrict high-powered laser pointers

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration published new draft guidance that could effectively put an end to high-powered lasers in the United States. It will not be formally approved until the 90-day comment period has passed.

The move is likely in response to the growing threat of laser strikes against aircraft. Since early 2014, the FBI has offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who reports a laser strike to federal authorities, leading to an arrest. Since the FBI began keeping track in 2004, there have been more than 12,000 reported incidents nationwide—and the incident rate continues to climb.

Earlier this year, a California man was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a lasering incident, believed to be the harshest such sentence in the United States, and possibly in the world. Pilots say that being struck with such lasers can be terrifying, causing temporary blindness and sometimes lingering headaches.

The new draft regulation expands the definition of surveying, leveling, or alignment (SLA) lasers, which are currently capped at five milliwatts of power, to include consumer-grade lasers. Sites, like WickedLasers.com, openly sell lasers with up to 2W of power for $200 to $600.

Neither the FDA nor the FBI immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment. However, Patrick Murphy, the editor of LaserPointerSafety.com, told Ars that the FDA is stretching its authority.

“In my personal opinion, FDA is wrong,” he told Ars in an e-mail. “First, pointers do not fit the existing FDA regulations (PDF) which clearly define SLA lasers. Second, if you look at any lasers used for surveying, leveling, or alignment, they do not look like or operate like handheld laser pointers.”

By phone, he clarified that SLA lasers are almost always too large to be handheld and sometimes require additional infrastructure. Further, SLA lasers have alignment add-ons that cheaper laser pointers don’t have.

“I'm not saying that [high-powered lasers] shouldn't be banned," Murphy added. "I'm saying that [the FDA doesn’t] have the authority under current law. You need to go through Congress to get the authority.”

In its new guidance, the FDA noted that the draft does not “establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe the Agency's current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited.”

UPDATE May 2, 2014 4:55pm CT: Mollie Halpern, an FBI spokeswoman, told Ars via e-mail that the FBI did not have a hand in this new FDA guidance and as such declined to comment. She did add though, that laser pointers "are examples of SLA laser products," and as such there have been laser strikes involving them.