In-Flight UV-A Exposure of Commercial Airline Pilots

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Understanding UV exposure is essential for the assessment of its contribution to the occupational risk of pilots developing ocular and skin pathologies. The objective of this observational study was to measure the UV exposure of pilots flying between the United Kingdom and a range of destinations at three different seasons.METHODS: The in-flight UV exposure of pilots was measured on 322 Monarch Airlines short-haul flights on the Airbus A321-231 and Airbus A320-214 to 31 destinations, mostly in Europe, from 4 UK airports in September 2016–August 2017. The erythema effective and UV-A doses were compared with the ICNIRP guidance and typical recreational weekend exposure of UK office workers.RESULTS: The erythema effective radiant doses did not exceed 0.1 SED. For most of the flights, the UV-A exposure was also low. On 27 single sector flights, UV-A exposure could have exceeded the ICNIRP guidance if eye protection was not used.DISCUSSION: The UV exposure in a cockpit is mostly governed by the presence of direct sunlight and the duration of a flight. The average monthly exposures were low and significantly below weekend recreational exposures of UK office workers over a similar period. To assess the contribution of occupational UV exposure to the risk of developing sun-related ocular and cutaneous pathologies, it is important to consider the accumulative flight time, destinations, and UV attenuation of aircraft windshields. Additionally, leisure and recreational outdoor time needs to be considered before meaningful overall risk analysis can be undertaken.Baczynska KA, Brown S, Chorley AC, O’Hagan JB, Khazova M, Lyachev A, Wittlich M. In-flight UV-A exposure of commercial airline pilots. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020; 91(6):501–510.

Measurements of UV—A Exposure of Commercial Pilots Using Genesis-UV Dosimeters

“…The flights that were not flown during daylight hours are reported in Table 2 as in dark, a total of 44 flights. The erythema effective doses were insignificant and did not exceed 0.1 Standard Erythema Doses (SED) on any flight [15], in agreement with published data [9,10,12].…”

“…Outbound flights to the southeast of Europe in June-July 2017 resulted in relatively high UV-A doses, though only two flights were flown. No correlation between the time of the morning departures and UV-A doses was found for flights to the south and southwest of Europe (p < 0.05) [15].…”

“…On 24 afternoon departure flights, UV-A doses were higher than 1 kJ/m 2 but below 10 kJ/m 2 ; all outbound flights were either in the dark or resulted in < 1 kJ/m 2 UV-A exposures. On afternoon outbound flights, in five flights UV-A doses were above 10 kJ/m 2 ; the highest was recorded at 63.5 kJ/m 2 on the 13:34 flight to Tenerife in summer 2016 [15]. The widest range of 1.7-63.5 kJ/m 2 was recorded on the outbound afternoon flights to the Canary Islands in August-September 2016.…”

“…The following method was used to measure the UVR exposure of commercial pilots on 312 Monarch Airlines flights on the Airbus A321-231 and Airbus A320-214 to 31 destinations, mostly in Europe, from four UK airports from September 2016 to August 2017 [15].…”

“…In this paper, the spectral correction method was applied to the UV-A sensor of the Genesis-UV unit to measure UVR exposure of commercial pilots on 312 flights to a range of destinations from four UK airports from September 2016 to August 2017 [15]. The results were compared with the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guideline [16] for the eyes of 10 kJ/m 2 .…”