Abstract

Agricultural workers are exposed to solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation due to the significant amount of time spent working outdoors. Risk information on UV exposure from the EPA SunWise UV Index mobile app is conveniently available for timely advice on risk management, but its reliability is unknown. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of the EPA UV Index app in providing accurate risk information to reduce UV exposure and prevent related illnesses among agricultural workers in eastern North Carolina. UV radiation effective irradiance (UV _eff ) indices were datalogged at two agricultural sites using radiometers from April–August 2019 and were assigned to risk levels (low, moderate, high, very high, extreme) based on the ACGIH^® Threshold Limit Values (TLVs^®). The UV index (UV _app ) and its corresponding risk level were obtained using the app. Hourly UV _app -based risk level assignments were time-matched to their corresponding UV _eff /TLV-based risk level assignments (871 pairs) and analyzed using cross tabulation by determining the percentage of hourly UV _eff /TLV-based risk levels (“gold standard”) with the same hourly UV _app -based risk levels, with a larger percentage indicating higher app reliability. Results showed that the app correctly identified 100% of low risk conditions, but its reliability decreased as the UV risk condition became more severe. The app correctly identified 0% of moderate, high and very high risk conditions but instead assigned 100% of them to lower risk levels (30–100% as low risk, 5–70% as moderate risk), indicating that the app was less protective in assessing UV risk. The app correctly identified 0.6% of extreme risk conditions but assigned 99.4% of them to lower risk levels (9.4% as low, 29.7% as moderate, 24.6% as high, 35.8% as very high). It is concluded that the performance of the EPA UV Index app in assessing occupational UV risk is not protective of workers particularly for high risk conditions, and that the use of the app for the assessment of risk to UV exposure in agricultural settings is not recommended.

摘要

由于花费大量时间在户外工作，农业工作者暴露于太阳紫外线（UV）辐射下。可方便地从EPA SunWise UV Index移动应用程序获得有关紫外线暴露的风险信息，以及时提出风险管理建议，但其可靠性尚不清楚。这项研究的目的是确定EPA UV Index应用程序在提供准确的风险信息以减少北卡罗来纳州东部农业工人中的UV暴露并预防相关疾病方面的可靠性。紫外线辐射的有效辐射（UV _EFF）指数均在使用辐射计，从2019 4 - 8月两种不同农业网站datalogged并分配给基础上，ACGIH风险水平（低，中，高，极高，极）^®阈限值（TLV ^®）。使用该应用程序可获得UV指数（UV _app）及其相应的风险水平。将基于每小时紫外线_应用程序的风险级别分配与相应的基于紫外线_效率/ TLV的风险级别分配（871对）进行时间匹配，并使用交叉表通过确定基于每小时紫外线_效率/基于TLV的风险级别的百分比进行分析（“金标准”），同时使用每小时的UV_应用 风险级别，百分比越高表示应用程序的可靠性越高。结果表明，该应用程序可以正确识别100％的低风险状况，但随着UV风险状况变得更加严重，其可靠性下降。该应用正确识别了0％的中度，高和非常高风险状况，但将其中的100％分配给了较低的风险级别（30-100％为低风险，5-70％为中度风险），表明该应用程序在评估紫外线风险方面具有保护作用。该应用程序正确地识别了0.6％的极端风险状况，但将其中99.4％分配给了较低的风险级别（9.4％为低，29.7％为中度，24.6％为高，35.8％为极高）。结论是，EPA UV Index应用程序在评估职业UV风险方面的性能不能保护工人，特别是在高风险条件下，