As phrased, it also sounds really far-fetched since cataracts are not a disease of the retina. Maybe that's a problem with the phrasing and not the claim, though.
I think there's some miscommunication here. Certainly, it's possible for light to damage the retina. It's likely that blue light is more apt to cause damage because it's higher energy. This doesn't mean that LEDs producing a larger blue component are more damaging than LEDs (or other lights) with a smaller blue component. It's entirely possible that at the intensity artificial light is used for indoor and street lighting, how much of the light is blue is irrelevant.
I didn't read this entire article, but it seems to be discussing the general mechanism of light damage. There was no reference to LEDs. I'd want to see something that gave reason to believe that the blue in LEDs poses a threat.
Edit:Adding LED to the search results in many spurious sources in 1st two pages, with a single NIH study. Again, more reading required:
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/122-a81/
This particular topic falls into the same category as 'phone radiation & brain cancer' news, where claims are made, proven, disproven and so on. If either proves true enough, we'll all be in the same boat together, I guess.
just look up 'welders eye' or 'corneal flash burns' or 'photokeratitis'
high intensity UV light most certainly causes both corneal and retinal damage, both acute and as an ongoing effect over time.
i have never seen nor can i find any reference to visible blue light. i think* that heavily phosphored leds with high CRI and low color temp do emit quite heavily above visible and translate it down. so maybe there is some leakage?
No one disputes that sufficient light can damage the eye. The question is whether there's any evidence that LEDs cause damage to the eye sure to the higher percentage of blue light.
The fact that exposure to extreme amounts of light can damage the eye is not evidence for the claim that LEDs at typical brightness damage the eye.
I'm not an eye doctor. It was explained to me that LEDs output blue wavelengths not present in the natural environment. Our eyes filter out many wavelengths but never saw these during evolution so the light goes right through their filters. The energy then dissipates in your eye and causes damage.
