Senior managers’ awareness of sun protection policy predicts implementation of worksite sun safety in a randomized trial

Abstract

Background: Outdoor workers experience chronic exposure to harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV) elevating their risk for skin cancer. Methods: A controlled randomized trial promoted the adoption of workplace sun safety policy and employee education at 98 public organizations in Colorado. A 2-year follow-up study with 68 organizations assessed the association of senior manager awareness of sun safety policies and implementation of sun safety actions. Results: Senior managers' awareness of existing sun safety policies, but not their personal sun protection behaviors, predicted implementation of sun safety actions including the number of sun protection messages and sun protection items in the workplace and increased communication about sun safety to employees. Conclusions: Organizational adoption of sun safety policy must include efforts to broadly inform a workplace's senior management to ensure the policies are actually implemented and provide support for sun protection behaviors by outdoor workers to reduce UV exposure and skin cancer risk. K E Y W O R D S cancer, occupational, policy, prevention, skin

Association of occupational sun safety policy and actions in state transportation sector in the United States

“…This might be an indication that in some state DOTs, policies are weak and sun safety actions depend on the personal interest of local managers or their role in the workplace safety culture. One would expect that stronger policies might reduce the influence of managers’ own sun safety or their job responsibilities, which is what the authors saw after the Sun Safe Workplaces intervention increased the strength of policies in an earlier trial 19 …”

“…Over a series of trials, the authors developed an evidence‐based, comprehensive approach to occupational sun safety. Based on the diffusion of innovations theory 16 and social‐ecological models, 17 this approach convinced employers to adopt policies for routine sun safety, increased implementation of environmental controls and administrative procedures for sun protection especially when managers were aware of policies, and increased employees’ sun safety practices 15,18‐20 . In a Canadian study, implementation of occupational sun safety was influenced by workplace context (e.g., organizational structure, organizational safety culture, and readiness to change), knowledge exchange in the intervention (e.g., use of knowledge brokers, engagement of workers, and type of resources provided), and external context (e.g., regulations regarding solar UV and heat protection in the workplace, regional climate, and average UV Index forecasts [a proxy for UV exposure]) 11 .…”