Some considerations on the protection against the health hazards associated with solar ultraviolet radiation

TL;DR

This paper reviews current strategies for protecting against solar UV health hazards, highlighting limitations of UV index-based messages and proposing expanded considerations including UV-A effects and lifestyle factors.

Contribution

It discusses the need to broaden UV protection strategies by incorporating additional biological effects and lifestyle considerations beyond the traditional UV index approach.

Findings

UV-A contributes significantly to DNA damage.

Current UV index may underestimate risks for skin cancer.

Lifestyle factors influence individual UV exposure risk.

Abstract

The present report briefly reviews the basic features of the current strategy for the protection against the health harms caused by solar ultraviolet (UV, 295 - 400 nm). The emphasis has been made upon the erythema as being the best-studied UV harm and the ability of UV irradiance to damage the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, which leads to carcinogenesis. The erythemally weighted UV irradiance that determines the ultraviolet index (UVI), represents a common measure of the solar UV radiation level at the Earth's surface and the current protective messages have been made by using UVI as a basic parameter. However, such an approach seems insufficiently grounded to be used also in the messages against the skin cancer, bearing in mind the different nature of the erythema and DNA lesions. In this context, an enlargement of the strategy basis by including additional biological effects of UV radiation studied during the past years has been discussed. For instance, the weight of the spectral UV-A (315 - 400 nm) band that in practice had been neglected by UVI definition can be enhanced since it was found to play an important role in DNA damaging. In addition, features of the contemporaneous life style can be taken into account together with some people habits.