Cargando…

Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility

BACKGROUND: Exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation is a well-known cause of skin cancer. This is problematic for outdoor workers. In Denmark alone, occupational skin cancer poses a significant health and safety risk for around 400,000 outdoor workers. Objective measures of solar ultraviolet radiati...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Grandahl, Kasper, Mortensen, Ole Steen, Sherman, David Zim, Køster, Brian, Lund, Paul-Anker, Ibler, Kristina Sophie, Eriksen, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5634959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29017484
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12938-017-0410-3
_version_ 1783270188278349824
author Grandahl, Kasper
Mortensen, Ole Steen
Sherman, David Zim
Køster, Brian
Lund, Paul-Anker
Ibler, Kristina Sophie
Eriksen, Paul
author_facet Grandahl, Kasper
Mortensen, Ole Steen
Sherman, David Zim
Køster, Brian
Lund, Paul-Anker
Ibler, Kristina Sophie
Eriksen, Paul
author_sort Grandahl, Kasper
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation is a well-known cause of skin cancer. This is problematic for outdoor workers. In Denmark alone, occupational skin cancer poses a significant health and safety risk for around 400,000 outdoor workers. Objective measures of solar ultraviolet radiation exposure are needed to help resolve this problem. This can be done using personal ultraviolet radiation dosimeters. METHODS: We consider technical and practical feasibility of measuring individual solar ultraviolet exposure at work and leisure in professions with different á priori temporal high-level outdoor worktime, using aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN) photodiode detector based personal UV-B dosimeters. Essential technical specifications including the spectral and angular responsivity of the dosimeters are described and pre-campaign dosimeter calibration applicability is verified. The scale and conduct of dosimeter deployment and campaign in-field measurements including failures and shortcomings affecting overall data collection are presented. RESULTS: Nationwide measurements for more than three hundred and fifty workers from several different professions were collected in the summer of 2016. On average, each worker’s exposure was measured for a 2-week period, which included both work and leisure. Data samples of exposure at work during a Midsummer day show differences across professions. A construction worker received high-level occupational UV exposure most of the working day, except during lunch hour, accumulating to 5.1 SED. A postal service worker was exposed intermittently around noon and in the afternoon, preceded by no exposure forenoon when packing mail, accumulating to 1.6 SED. A crane fitter was exposed only during lunch hour, accumulating to 0.7 SED. These findings are in line with our specialist knowledge as occupational physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Large-scale use of personal UV-B dosimeters for measurement of solar ultraviolet radiation exposure at work and leisure in Denmark is indeed feasible from a technical and practical viewpoint. Samples of exposure data shown support the presumption that the Danish campaign UV-B dosimeter measurement dataset can be used to sum and compare exposure between groups of professions with reliable results to be used in future analysis with clinical as well as epidemiological/questionnaire data. This was despite some dosimeter failures and shortcomings.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5634959
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-56349592017-10-19 Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility Grandahl, Kasper Mortensen, Ole Steen Sherman, David Zim Køster, Brian Lund, Paul-Anker Ibler, Kristina Sophie Eriksen, Paul Biomed Eng Online Research BACKGROUND: Exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation is a well-known cause of skin cancer. This is problematic for outdoor workers. In Denmark alone, occupational skin cancer poses a significant health and safety risk for around 400,000 outdoor workers. Objective measures of solar ultraviolet radiation exposure are needed to help resolve this problem. This can be done using personal ultraviolet radiation dosimeters. METHODS: We consider technical and practical feasibility of measuring individual solar ultraviolet exposure at work and leisure in professions with different á priori temporal high-level outdoor worktime, using aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN) photodiode detector based personal UV-B dosimeters. Essential technical specifications including the spectral and angular responsivity of the dosimeters are described and pre-campaign dosimeter calibration applicability is verified. The scale and conduct of dosimeter deployment and campaign in-field measurements including failures and shortcomings affecting overall data collection are presented. RESULTS: Nationwide measurements for more than three hundred and fifty workers from several different professions were collected in the summer of 2016. On average, each worker’s exposure was measured for a 2-week period, which included both work and leisure. Data samples of exposure at work during a Midsummer day show differences across professions. A construction worker received high-level occupational UV exposure most of the working day, except during lunch hour, accumulating to 5.1 SED. A postal service worker was exposed intermittently around noon and in the afternoon, preceded by no exposure forenoon when packing mail, accumulating to 1.6 SED. A crane fitter was exposed only during lunch hour, accumulating to 0.7 SED. These findings are in line with our specialist knowledge as occupational physicians. CONCLUSIONS: Large-scale use of personal UV-B dosimeters for measurement of solar ultraviolet radiation exposure at work and leisure in Denmark is indeed feasible from a technical and practical viewpoint. Samples of exposure data shown support the presumption that the Danish campaign UV-B dosimeter measurement dataset can be used to sum and compare exposure between groups of professions with reliable results to be used in future analysis with clinical as well as epidemiological/questionnaire data. This was despite some dosimeter failures and shortcomings. BioMed Central 2017-10-10 /pmc/articles/PMC5634959/ /pubmed/29017484 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12938-017-0410-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Grandahl, Kasper
Mortensen, Ole Steen
Sherman, David Zim
Køster, Brian
Lund, Paul-Anker
Ibler, Kristina Sophie
Eriksen, Paul
Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility
title Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility
title_full Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility
title_fullStr Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility
title_full_unstemmed Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility
title_short Solar UV exposure among outdoor workers in Denmark measured with personal UV-B dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility
title_sort solar uv exposure among outdoor workers in denmark measured with personal uv-b dosimeters: technical and practical feasibility
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5634959/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29017484
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12938-017-0410-3
work_keys_str_mv AT grandahlkasper solaruvexposureamongoutdoorworkersindenmarkmeasuredwithpersonaluvbdosimeterstechnicalandpracticalfeasibility
AT mortensenolesteen solaruvexposureamongoutdoorworkersindenmarkmeasuredwithpersonaluvbdosimeterstechnicalandpracticalfeasibility
AT shermandavidzim solaruvexposureamongoutdoorworkersindenmarkmeasuredwithpersonaluvbdosimeterstechnicalandpracticalfeasibility
AT køsterbrian solaruvexposureamongoutdoorworkersindenmarkmeasuredwithpersonaluvbdosimeterstechnicalandpracticalfeasibility
AT lundpaulanker solaruvexposureamongoutdoorworkersindenmarkmeasuredwithpersonaluvbdosimeterstechnicalandpracticalfeasibility
AT iblerkristinasophie solaruvexposureamongoutdoorworkersindenmarkmeasuredwithpersonaluvbdosimeterstechnicalandpracticalfeasibility
AT eriksenpaul solaruvexposureamongoutdoorworkersindenmarkmeasuredwithpersonaluvbdosimeterstechnicalandpracticalfeasibility