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UV Doses of American
Children and Adolescents
Godar, Dianne1
Food and Drug Administration1
Abstract-
The UV doses of American young adults were never measured, but are needed
for assessing UV-related health risks. These doses were calculated using
a novel approach. The  National
Human Activity Pattern Survey
recorded the daily minute-by-minute activities of about 2,000 young
adults (0-19 yr.) over the course of two years to assess their exposure
to environmental pollutants. From that survey, only the outdoor daylight
times for northern and southern girls and boys were extracted and stratified
by season and age to find the time American children (0-5, 6-12 yr.)
and adolescents (13-19 yr.) spend outdoors. They go out about 10% during
the day, but only get about 30% of the available terrestrial UV radiation
(on a horizontal plane). American children have about the same percent
personal ambients as adults (3.1%), 2.8% for girls and 3.4% for boys.
Adolescents have the lowest personal ambients (2.6%), 2.1% for girls
and 3.1% for boys. To get their personal UV doses, their percent ambients
are multiplied by the total available terrestrial UV. Excluding vacation,
the average UV doses for American children are 25 kJ/m2/yr.,
23 kJ/m2/yr. for girls and 28 kJ/m2/yr. for boys.
Adolescents only get 21 kJ/m2/yr., 18 kJ/m2/yr.
for girls and 24 kJ/m2/yr. for boys. Young adult northern
girls get 18 kJ/m2/yr. and boys get 21 kJ/m2/yr.,
while southern girls get 24 kJ/m2/yr. and boys get 31 kJ/m2/yr.
The youngest children (0-5 yr.) get slightly higher summer doses. Thus,
we can now assess the UV-related health risks for American children
and adolescents.
Keywords: Environment,
Radiation, Cancer, Risk
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