Are our modern lifestyles affecting our eyes? We have come across some interesting research by Dr. Stuart Richer, director of ocular preventive medicine at the James Lovell Federal Health Care Facility in Chicago, suggesting ‘bad blue’ light is photochemically damaging our retinas.
An excerpt from the article:
Our sun, modern indoor blue LED lighting, cell phones, and computer displays all emit “bad blue” radiation defined as a wavelength band of 435 nm ± 20 nm. Such radiant energy degrades visual quality, can enhance or disrupt our inborn mammalian circadian rhythm, and photochemically damage our retinas.1-3 While our corneas block UVB and our ocular lens obstructs UVA, such longer wavelength “bad blue” radiation easily penetrates past the cornea and lens. Bad blue radiation is particularly hazardous to children, young adults, “clear – ocular – lens” baby boomers, and the pseudophakic patient, to whom blue radiation is transmitted directly to the retina. Even infant retinas are increasingly exposed to ‘bad blue’ tablet screen images.
Read the full article on the Optometry Times website.
There is further reading on our website, with the paper ‘Macular pigment helps prevent AMD and improve vision’ co-authored by Dr. Stuart Richer.