Complaints lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over misleading claims made by Boots Opticians in national press advertisements regarding blue light and the multiple’s lenses have been upheld by the regulator.
In an advert seen in the national press in January this year, Boots claimed that many modern gadgets, such as LED TVs and smartphones, as well as energy-saving light bulbs, emitted a certain type of blue light that could cause a person’s retinal cells to deteriorate over time. The multiple went on to say its Boots Protect Plus Blue lenses could filter harmful blue light and ease eye strain and fatigue.
The ASA said Boots provided information on the different types of blue light. Blue-violet light, said by the multiple to be harmful to the human eye, ranged from around 415 to 455nm, while blue-turquoise light that ranged from around 465 to 495nm was not damaging.
A study and a literature review were submitted in support of the claim that blue-violet had a negative effect on the eye. Boots added that its lens coating blocked 20 per cent of the harmful blue light and permitted 96 per cent of blue-turquoise light and 98 per cent of visible light through to the eye.
In its assessments, the ASA said that while the advert acknowledged also referenced other factors that could affect people’s eyes, it considered that consumers would interpret it to mean that by filtering out harmful blue light in particular, they could reduce the deterioration of their vision later in life.
The regulator added that only evidence from full trials conducted on humans would be potentially sufficient to support the claims.
Although the study submitted by Boots included a large number of participants who were followed up over several years, the ASA said it was one single epidemiological study which only suggested that sunlight and not blue-violet light in particular, might be a risk factor for the early onset of AMD.
In ruling on the claims made on the filtering capability of the Boots Protect Plus Blue lenses, the ASA said the multiple did not provide evidence that the reduction in the amount of harmful blue light entering the eye would lead to a significant reduction in the amount of retinal damage caused.
The advert must not appear again in its current form and Boots has been instructed not to make claims that blue light causes retinal damage or that its Protect Plus Lenses filtered out a meaningful amount of harmful blue light without adequate substantiation.
