yeah this is the same as saying "cities leak so much radiation it's hurting astronomy". light pollution is a problem, and that's technically a description of it, but it's an intentionally bad one.
I guess I can see that perspective if I imagine myself too ignorant to understand the author’s point and what radiation actually is. Try to consider that cities emit all sorts of radiation, from low frequency radio waves, to UHF/VHF, cellular frequencies, visible light, and like every other object above absolute zero, infrared radiation.. and while not specifically the point, many of those could affect astronomers. So that’s probably why you and OP run against the grain of common logic here..