A main reason that laser light is dangerous is that it can easily be focused down to a tiny spot.

If you try to use a series of lenses to focus light from a standard lightbulb, you will find that you are limited in how concentrated you can make it. There is a property of a light source called etendue, which is related to the size of the source and the angular spread over which it emits light, and this is conserved by optical elements such as lenses. For relatively large sources that emit in all directions, this limits how well you can "collect" the light.

Lasers often have very low etendue. Their light is emitted from a tiny point, or gathered into a beam that has very low angular spread. Furthermore, the fact that it is monochromatic - that is has a single wavelength - helps to focus it because lenses generally have chromatic aberrations. As such, you can focus a laser to a very intense spot, such that a laser of one watt, much less power than a lightbulb, can generate light intense enough to start fires. Your eyes also themselves focus incoming light onto your retina, so they can potentially focus laser light into a more intense point than other sources. That said, this gives lasers the potential to be dangerous, rather than guaranteeing that they are. If you don't focus the laser light down, it is not necessarily more dangerous than any other source.

Incidentally, sunlight also has low etendue- by the time it reaches us it is barely diverging at all. That is why you can also focus down sunlight with a magnifying glass and start fires. So lasers are not unique in this regard, but they are more dangerous than most other sources of light.

There are other dangers associated with lasers as well. For example, some lasers are in an invisible range, but such lasers can damage your eyes even though you can't tell they are shining on them.

The dangers I've described are generally reduced with visible range LEDs, but any type of light can be dangerous under the right conditions. You should look for specific guidance for the particulars of your situation.

A main reason that laser light is dangerous is that it can easily be focused down to a tiny spot.

If you try to use a series of lenses to focus light from a standard lightbulb, you will find that you are limited in how concentrated you can make it. There is a property of a light source called etendue, which is related to the size of the source and the angular spread over which it emits light, and this is conserved by optical elements such as lenses. For relatively large sources that emit in all directions, this limits how well you can "collect" the light.

Lasers often have very low etendue. The fact that their light is emitted into a single mode makes it easy for it to originate from a tiny point or a uniform beam. Furthermore, the fact that it is monochromatic - that is has a single wavelength - helps to focus it because lenses generally have chromatic aberrations. As such, you can focus a laser to a very intense spot, such that a laser of one watt, much less power than a lightbulb, can generate light intense enough to start fires. Your eyes also themselves focus incoming light onto your retina, so they can potentially focus laser light into a more intense point than other sources. That said, this gives lasers the potential to be dangerous, rather than guaranteeing that they are. If you don't focus the laser light down, it is not necessarily more dangerous than any other source.

Incidentally, sunlight also has low etendue- by the time it reaches us it is barely diverging at all. That is why you can also focus down sunlight with a magnifying glass and start fires. So lasers are not unique in this regard, but they are more dangerous than most other sources of light.

There are other dangers associated with lasers as well. For example, some lasers are in an invisible range, but such lasers can damage your eyes even though you can't tell they are shining on them.

The dangers I've described are generally reduced with visible range LEDs, but any type of light can be dangerous under the right conditions. You should look for specific guidance for the particulars of your situation.