Eye Damage from Supermarket Laser Scanners
C.W. Tazewell
I am sure that there is eye damage from checkout scanners. I have
noticed the effect on my eyes for years. I try to avoid going thru the
check out line, and have someone do it for me. They soon catch on, and
don't want to increase their risk. People could have bad effects from the
scanners, but may not realize why.
I always use sunglasses when I go through supermarket checkout lines.
I try to use skiing glasses, or as dark as possible. I also try to figure
which lanes have scanners pointed directly at the customer, and try to avoid
looking at the scanners. In some stores one lane is better than others,
depending on how the beam is aimed.
The hand scanners are better, and some stores have elaborate systems to
keep the light from the customers and employees.
I think we have hit on a problem without an easy solution. Since it
will cost money to make them safer and replace scanners, you can't count on
cooperation from the merchants.
Can we count on the opthalmologists and optometrists to cooperate in
eliminating a problem that might be making them a lot of money?
Hopefully some unbiased, independent organization will prepared a valid
study. I suggested one to a national newsletter, they said it sounded like
a good project, but I never heard anything more.
A check should be made with various national consumer organizations to
find out if there has been a study, and (if not) see if one can be made.
Supermarket clerks think I am some kind of a wierdo with dark
sunglasses on at night, and note that I keep looking in another direction
(away from them and the scanner).
Keith G. Davey
!I have noticed the effect on my eyes for years.
Why do you feel that it's the scanners? Just cos your eyes get older with
age, how can you say that it's the scanners.
>I have noticed the effect on my eyes for years.
What effect
>I try to avoid going thru the check out line, and have someone do it for me.
They soon >catch on, and don't want to increase their risk.
Well would you like to do my house cleaning for me? I can assure you that
there's no risk to your eyes.
- sent via an evaluation copy of BulkRate (unregistered).
C.W. Tazewell
--
Some stores have a much better system with the scanners so the beam
doesn't strike the eyes of customers and clerks. The local grocery, Food 4
Less has such a system. And, the General Nutrition Stores have a scanner
attached to the cash register that is much better. And, the hand-held
scanners in many stores seem to be ok as long as the clerk is careful not to
aim at the customer' eyes. The ones that are bad are the ones that are in
the top of the counter.
The manager of the Food 4 Less store just told me that he has seen
reports about the hazard of scanners, and he said that there was one report
in the Wall Street Journal. The Food 4 Less stores use the NCR Upright
Scanner.
When I go through supermarket checkout lines without my sunglasses and
happen to look into the laser beam I immediately have obvious discomfort and
tearing. It lasts for a number of hours, sometimes even the next day. If I
don't have sunglasses with me and if I am lucky and don't look into the
beam, especially if it is aimed some other way, I don't have the discomfort.
Other people may have the discomfort, but don't have any idea about why.
At age 78 my eyesight is getting better. The optometrist said my eyes
were unusual since they could be corrected to 20/20. I see well at night.
I have had to change my glasses twice recently due to my better vision. I
take a lot of antioxidants. They "take the trash out" (the free-radical
debris) of the eyes and the rest of the body. When this "trash" accumulates
in the eyes and the body for many years, we have illnesses and aging
problems.
I need glasses for close work, reading, etc. When I was a teenager in
the 1930s I could not see the blackboard clearly in high school. I was
nearsighted until about thirty years ago when I started taking nutritional
supplements, especially vitamins A, C and E. Then, I didn't need glasses
at all until I was 64. I needed them then (as now) for close work. I still
pass the drivers license exam without glasses.
My point is that the matter should be looked into from an unbiased
viewpoint.
Norm Tyler x32287
from looking into a laser scanner - don't look into a laser scanner! I'm
sure that one could suffer some kind of injury by concentrating on a 1000
watt mercury-vapor street light for a few minutes. So sue god for making
light! Call Norton-Frickup! Write the "enquiring minds"!
OR ... just get a life?
Jack E. Harris
one. I remember a study years ago on the effects of some of the
wavelengths emitted by fluorescent lighting. It causes the lens
of the eye to fluoresce and delays dark adaptation for periods
of time, ranging up to 8 hours, for the effects to abate.
It is possible this an a side effect of supermarket scanners.
--
Jack Harris
