???

[meanfreepath]

From a Sony laser diode databook (my emphasis):

Laser diodes use gallium arsenide (GaAs). This is not a problem for normal use, but GaAs vapors may be potentially hazardous to the human body. Therefore, never crush, heat to the maximum storage temperature or higher, or place the product in your mouth.

Comments

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Oops... I'd previously been in the habit of eating my burned out laser diodes. They taste like chocolate.

Umm... I guess a large percentage (~30%) have had kids by the time they graduated, and usually they bring their (very young) kids to visit the lab at least once... And it certainly never occurred to me that, say, stepping on an old laser diode might be a problem (not that I've ever done it--we usually keep burned out diodes for testing the alignment when we build new lasers--but I could see someone doing it by accident).

[sildra.livejournal.com]

Err... I meant to say a large percentage of the grad students in my lab.