🔆 Invisible laser radiation
serious
Where you meet it: Fibre transceivers, EDFA pump lasers, live fibre ports
What you need to know
- Telecom lasers operate at 1310 and 1550 nm — completely invisible, and your blink reflex will not protect you.
- Retinal damage is permanent.
- EDFA pump lasers are high power and are a different hazard class again from an SFP.
The rule: NEVER look into a fibre end, a transceiver port or a patch panel port.
Components this applies to
Fiber transceivers (SFP/GBIC/QSFP) ⚠
Au 0.5–1.5 g/lb (whole modules)Ag trace
A
Enterprise Switches, Line Cards & Optics
Au 0.15–0.6 g per large line card ≈ 0.075 g/lbCu ~70 g/lbBase chassis backplane
C
DVD & Blu-ray Players
Cu 10–18 g/lbAu 0.002–0.008 g/lbBase steel case 50–70%
D
Optical Drives & Laser Pickups
Au 0.01–0.03 g per drive ≈ 0.011 g/lbCu ~16 g/lbBase Al 200–400 g
D