Use of smartphone apps to monitor human exposure to solar radiation: Comparison between predicted and measured UV index values.

The Ultra-Violet Index (UVI) is widespread used to communicate the UV radiation intensity to the general public. The knowledge of the UVI value and of its daily variation is essential for many techniques for monitoring the personal exposure to UV radiation. The UVI values are usually provided by the meteorological services and nowadays it is very common to find UVI forecast tools even in smartphone apps. In this paper, with the aim to evaluate the prediction accuracy of six smartphone apps, a measurement campaign of UVI has been carried out. The measurements have been conducted for the site of Pisa (central Italy), using a portable photoradiometer equipped with a UV erythemal irradiance probe (operating range 250-400 nm). The measured UVI values have been compared with the predicted UVI values (using smartphone apps). Bland-Altman and Passing-Bablok methods have been used to compare the data, the comparison has been conducted on the basis of 90 different UVI measurements, taken at different times, different days and different sky conditions. From the comparison between measured and predicted UVI values it has been possible to observe a general poor accuracy of the apps. The percentage deviations between measured and predicted UVI values were quite high and only one app was able to predict more than 70% of the measured data with an average percentage deviation lower than 30%.

Outdoor work and solar radiation exposure: Evaluation method for epidemiological studies.

BACKGROUND: The health risk related to an excessive exposure to solar radiation (SR) is well known. The Sun represents the main exposure source for all the frequency bands of optical radiation, that is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum ranging between 100 nm and 1 mm, including infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV) and visible radiation. According to recent studies, outdoor workers have a relevant exposure to SR but few studies available in scientific literature have attempted to retrace a detailed history of individual exposure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We propose a new method for the evaluation of SR cumulative exposure both during work and leisure time, integrating subjective and objective data. The former is collected by means of an interviewer administrated questionnaire. The latter is available through the Internet databases for many geographical regions and through individual exposure measurements. The data is integrated into a mathematical algorithm, in order to obtain an esteem of the individual total amount of SR the subjects have been exposed to during their lives. RESULTS: The questionnaire has been tested for 58 voluntary subjects. Environmental exposure data through online databases has been collected for 3 different places in Italy in 2012. Individual exposure by electronic UV dosimeter has been measured in 6 fishermen. A mathematical algorithm integrating subjective and objective data has been elaborated. CONCLUSIONS: The method proposed may be used in epidemiological studies to evaluate specific correlations with biological effects of SR and to weigh the role of the personal and environmental factors that may increase or reduce SR exposure. Med Pr 2016;67(5):577-587.

Sun Exposure of Body Districts: Development and Validation of an Algorithm to Predict the Erythemal Ultra Violet Dose.

Solar Ultra-Violet (UV) radiation has positive and negative effects on human body tissues. Small doses of solar UV radiation are needed by the human skin for the activation of the vitamin D production. Overexposure to solar UV radiation can produce acute and long-term negative effects, such as sunburns and, in the worst cases, cataracts and skin cancers. For this reason, knowing the amount of UV doses received by people is essential to evaluate their risk to UV overexposure and to evaluate the adequate countermeasure to avoid the negative effects. The original contribution of the present study consists in having searched, collected, adapted and processed a series of technical information and analytical relations, developing an algorithm suitable for the calculation of the erythemal UV dose on sloped surfaces exposed to solar radiation, which at the moment is not present in the scientific literature. The results obtained by the algorithm have been compared to the results of a field measurements campaign, carried out in three different Italian sites. Results comparison indicated that measured and calculated values show a sufficient level of agreement, with a mean absolute error equal to 20%.

Occupational Exposure to Solar UV Radiation of a Group of Fishermen Working in the Italian North Adriatic Sea.

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.