1. ^aDepartment of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang, China
2. ^bNational Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
3. ^cShenyang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenyang, China

Correspondence: Professor Y. Liu, Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, China. Fax: +8624 23264417; E-mail: cmuliuyang@hotmail.com

Received 24 August 2005; Accepted 3 April 2006; Published online 10 May 2006.

Abstract

The solar-UV exposures of school pupils and medical undergraduates were studied over four seasons in Shenyang (latitude 41°11'–43°2', longitude 122°25'–123°48'), Liaoning, PR China. Ultraviolet exposure was measured using personal ultraviolet radiation (UVR) sensor on sunny days along with simultaneous monitoring and recording of direct-ambient UVR dose (perpendicular UV dose) for comparison. We observed that the UV doses of pupils on weekdays were higher than those on weekends and that the UV doses of the pupils were significantly higher than those of the undergraduates during both weekdays and weekends. The percent of the mean individual daily UV dose to the environmental counterpart are 2.88% (Autumn), 7.76% (Winter), 3.77% (Spring) and 2.06% (Summer) for the pupils, and corresponding percent for the undergraduates are 0.88%, 0.32%, 0.67% and 0.81%. The means of minimum erythemal dose values with pupils for weekday (5 days), weekend (2 days) and week (7 days) through the whole year are 0.302 (0.2750.328), 0.215 (0.1700.261) and 0.278 (0.2550.301), respectively. The corresponding means with undergraduates are 0.097 (0.0810.113), 0.091 (0.0700.112) and 0.095 (0.0820.108), respectively. Although the season is a major factor influencing the personal direct-ambient percent, it is emphasized that the impact of the lifestyle cannot be ignored.