UV radiation dose measurements

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present the implementation of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation dose measurement system at the Laboratorio de Dosimetria Optica (LDOS) of the Centro Nacional de Metrologia (CENAM). The UV dose measurement ranges established so far cover from 12 J . m -2 to 7 256 J . m and from 171 Jm -2 to 102 842 J . m , for 254 nm and 365 nm, respectively; corresponding to two emission lines of an arc Hg(Xe) lamp. Those dose ranges can be reached with exposure times from 2 s to 10 min and the reference do se uncertainty has been estim ated to be of ±5,4 %. Keywords : UV dose, UV radiation, Calibration, Standard detector, National standard, Uncertainty. 1. INTRODUCTION The UV optical radiation has a large variety of applications in the medical and industrial fields, the most common examples are: health prevention, disinfection of medical instrumentation, phototherapy, water sterilization, cements curing, photopolymerization, materials degradation, photolithography, cosmetic bronzing, electric welding, etc. With this wide number of applications, there is no doubt about the importance of measuring the UV radiation dose at which a sample is exposed. The knowledge of this dose allows performing specific studies about some chemical, physical and/or biological effects this kind of radiation causes in the different living species and materials. A large number of studies have been published describing the behavior and effects of UV dose radiation in medical treatments, bacterial inactivation, accelerated ageing tests, skin and eyes damage, among other