Abstract
Occupational solar radiation exposure is a relevant heath risk in the fishing sector. Our aim was to provide a detailed evaluation of individual UV exposure in three different fishing activities in Italy, with personal UV dosimeters and a simple formula to calculate the fraction of ambient erythemal UV dose received by the workers. The potential individual UV exposure of the fishermen was between 65 and 542 Joules/m2. The percentages of the ambient exposure were estimated between 2.5% and 65.3%. Workers’ UV exposure was mainly influenced by the characteristics of the work activity, the postures adopted, and the type of boats. Overall, our data showed that 43% of the daily measurements could result largely above the occupational limits of 1–1.3 standard erythemal dose (i.e., 100 Joules/m2) per day, in case of exposure of uncovered skin areas. Measurements of individual UV exposure are important not only to assess the risk but also to increase workers’ perception and stimulate the adoption of preventive measures to reduce solar UV risk. Furthermore, the simple method proposed, linking ambient erythemal UV dose to the workers’ exposure, can be a promising tool for a reliable assessment of the UV risk, as time series of environmental UV dose are widely available.
Highlights
Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure is a relevant occupational risk factor for outdoor workers (OWs), and it may determine severe health consequences: UV rays are the leading cause of skin cancers, as excessive exposure to UV radiation has been linked to both melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC) [1,2,3,4,5]
A total of 7 male fishermen, mean age 38.1 years, working on three different fishing boats were monitored for their occupational solar UV exposure with personal UV dosimeters
We report the fraction of the total amount of environmental UV exposure received by the workers during their working time, calculated according to the procedure described in the Materials and Methods section
Summary
Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure is a relevant occupational risk factor for outdoor workers (OWs), and it may determine severe health consequences: UV rays are the leading cause of skin cancers, as excessive exposure to UV radiation has been linked to both melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC) [1,2,3,4,5]. Biological evidence indicates that DNA damaged by UV exposure results in increasing rates of melanoma, basal cell carcinoma (BCC), and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) [2,6]. UV exposure is responsible for other skin diseases, such as actinic keratosis and photo-aging [1,6,7], and it is involved in the pathogenesis of several ocular disorders, such as cataract, Int. J. Public Health 2019, 16, 3001; doi:10.3390/ijerph16163001 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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