Related Links
Basic Information about Skin Cancer
This web site provides basic information about the health effects of ultraviolet radiation and the difference between UVA, UVB, and UVC.
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Hazards to Outdoor Workers: UV Radiation
Provides information about the risks of UV radiation to outdoor workers, symptoms of sunburn and first aid tips. NIOSH also provides a listing of recommendations for protection from UV radiation that employers can distribute to workers who perform duties outdoors.
Travelers Health –Yellow Book: Chapter 2, the Pre-Travel Consultation Sunburn
Provides information for travelers about overexposure to the sun, health risks from UV rays, and preventive actions that travelers can take to avoid overexposure.
Skin Cancer Prevention Progress Report
In July 2014, the Office of the Surgeon General released The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer, establishing skin cancer prevention as a high priority for our nation. The “Skin Cancer Prevention Progress Report” summarizes recent prevention efforts and highlights new data, developments, and success stories following the Call to Action.
Artificial Tanning Sunbeds: Risk and Guidance [PDF – 4 MB]
While the World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend the use of UV tanning devices for cosmetic purposes, it is recognized that sunbeds continue to be available to the public. This practical guide, prepared by Craig Sinclair, WHO, is intended for government health authorities, to assist them in the development of public health policy in relation to sunbeds.
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The biological effects of UV radiation vary enormously with wavelength and for this reason the UV spectrum is further subdivided into three regions: UVA, UVB, and UVC. Quantities of UV radiation are expressed using radiometric terminology. A particularly important term in clinical photobiology is the standard erythema dose (SED), which is a measure of the erythemal effectiveness of a UV exposure. UV radiation is produced either by heating a body to an incandescent temperature, as is the case with solar UV, or by passing an electric current through a gas, usually vaporized mercury. The latter process is the mechanism whereby UV radiation is produced artificially. Both the quality (spectrum) and quantity (intensity) of terrestrial UV radiation vary with factors including the elevation of the sun above the horizon and absorption and scattering by molecules in the atmosphere, notably ozone, and by clouds. For many experimental studies in photobiology it is simply not practicable to use natural sunlight and so artificial sources of UV radiation designed to simulate the UV component of sunlight are employed; these are based on either optically filtered xenon arc lamps or fluorescent lamps. The complete way to characterize an UV source is by spectroradiometry, although for most practical purposes a detector optically filtered to respond to a limited portion of the UV spectrum normally suffices.