1. UVR Emissions from Solaria in Australia
Peter Gies1, John Javorniczky1, Stuart Henderson1, Colin Roy1,
Alan McLennan1, Jordan Lock1, Claire Lynga1 and
Louisa Gordon2
1 Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency
2 Queensland Institute Medical Research
Australian Radiation Protection Society Conference
(2010)
17 – 20 October 2010, Adelaide
3. Why Renewed Interest in Solaria ?
• Clare Oliver effect?? > BrJDerm2008
• Research showed that many of the
recommendations for solaria were not being
complied with
• The studies concluded that self regulation
of the solarium industry was clearly not
working Paul et al (2005); Team et al (2006); Dobbinson et al
(2006); Environmental Health Directorate WA (2006);
• IARC Publication on Solaria > Int J Cancer 2006
4. ARPANSA National Forum on Solaria
• Organised in November 2007
• Contracted QIMR to do a report on health
impacts of regulation of solaria > ARPANSA
Website
• Brought together state regulators
• other stakeholders, Cancer Council Australia,
Solarium Industry Representative
5. A Set of Basic Requirements for Solaria
• Prohibition on persons under 18 years of age;
• Exposures subject to operator supervision;
• Supervisors to be trained; ***
• Only trained personnel to control exposures;
6. A Set of Basic Requirements for Solaria (cont)
• Skin type to be assessed by operators;
• Persons with skin type 1 to be prohibited;
• Clients to provide written consent before use;
• Specified limit on exposure in any session;
• At least 48 hrs between successive sessions.
http://www.arpansa.gov.au/pubs/comment/dr_ndrp4.pdf
7. Impact of Solaria vs Solar UVR
• Original paper by Diffey Br J Derm 2003
• Compared sunbed use versus solar UVR
exposures in British population
• 100 deaths/year in the UK due to solaria
12. The Standards Committee on Solaria 2008
HEALTH AGENCIES:
ARPANSA, Australasian College Dermatology, Cancer
Council Australia, NZ Cancer Society, NZ Dermatology
Society, Radiation Advisory Council Australia, Sydney
Melanoma Unit, Skin and Cancer Foundation, VicDHS
INDUSTRY:
Australasian Solarium Association, Australian Chamber
Commerce and Industry (ATA)*, Australian Industry
Group (Sunimports)*
CONSUMER GROUPS:
Consumers’ Federation Australia, Consumer Action
13. The Standards Committee on Solaria 2008
• The 2002 Standard required updating eg:
• skin types, age limits, operator training etc,
• upper limit of UVR emissions of UV Index 60,
ie 5 times that of summer sunshine !!
• The solarium industry was prepared to
consider a reduction as long as it did not
entail a huge cost to the industry
14. The Standards Committee on Solaria 2008
• For solaria in the EC the maximum intensity
allowed is UV Index 12 (since 2007)
• The question was, what were current solaria
in Australia emitting?
• ARPANSA agreed to survey as many solaria
as possible and report back to the
committee
26. Solaria Emissions
• Do solarium operators do not know what’s
coming out of their solaria?
• They class sunbeds by time eg beds are
6 min, 8 min, 10min etc
• However at one establishment, the three 8
min sunbeds differed in intensity by 55%,
with UV Index values of 31.3, 40.7 and 48.6
• 8 min UV doses ranged from 3.8, 4.9 and
5.8 SEDs – overexposure is highly likely! **
• Pathway for reporting overexposures?
27. Implications of these Results
(Gordon et al Med J Aust (2008) What Impact would
effective solarium regulation have in Australia.
No of new melanomas due to solarium use
Vic NSW Qld SA WA
51 75 121 14 20
No of melanoma related deaths from solaria
Vic NSW Qld SA WA
7 12 14 5 5
28. Solaria: Recent Evidence?
(Lazovitch et al Cancer Epidem Biomarkers Prev (2010)
US Case Control Study of sunbed use
• In a highly exposed population, frequent
indoor tanning increased melanoma risk
regardless of age when indoor tanning began
• Early age exposure is most likely a marker for
cumulative exposure
29. Solaria: Recent Evidence?
(Lazovitch et al Cancer Epidem Biomarkers Prev (2010)
• Likelihood of melanoma was significantly
increased 2.86 times for users of high speed/
high intensity devices relative to non users
• These results indicate that the number of
times an individual is exposed to indoor
tanning is more important than exposure at an
early age
30. Solaria: Recent Evidence?
(Cust et al International Journal Cancer 2010)
Australian Case Control Study of sunbed use
• Compared with non users, users of sunbeds
were 41% more likely to develop melanoma
• Among those sunbed users diagnosed
between 18-29 years of age, 76% of
melanomas were attributable to sunbed use
31. Solaria: Recent Evidence?
(Cust et al International Journal Cancer 2010)
• Users who reported more than 10 sunbed
sessions had twice the risk of melanoma as
non-users
• Mutual adjustment of early age at first use and
cumulative exposure indicated that cumulative
exposure is probably more important than age
at first use
32. Solaria: DRAFT REGULATIONS
Enforcement of solaria regulations mandated
by ARPANSA’s National Directory for
Radiation Protection > national uniformity!
Enforcement is the responsibility of each
State jurisdiction.
33. Solaria: REGULATIONS AT LAST!
State regulations governing solaria enacted in
• Victoria (1 February 2008),
• South Australia (14 March 2008),
• Queensland (5 November 2008),
• Western Australia (September 2008),
• New South Wales (29 May 2009)
• and Tasmania (26 August 2009).
34. ARPANSA Solarium Operators Training Course
• Skin type assessment
is important before
clients are exposed
• Australasian College
of Dermatology has
checked this
• Web based training
course almost
complete ??
35. Solaria: The future?
• The reduction in solarium numbers reported in
Victoria from 2006 to 2009 (Makin et al 2009) is
positive, but will it be maintained ?
• ARL study of solaria emissions (Hlth Phys 1986)
• Solarium numbers were similar to recently and
also changed significantly then as now
• The solarium industry goes through cycles
• Public education campaigns need to be
regularly reinforced
36. FUTURE QUESTIONS?
• These results presented here are from
2008, before regulation
• What would a follow-up survey find now
that regulations are in place? recent
result*
• NSW Survey 2009 found only 2 of 89
solaria establishments were fully compliant
• NSW Survey 2010 found 41 of 72
establishments were essentially meeting
their obligations
37. CONCLUSIONS
• Solaria emissions ranged from UV Index 10
to 48, achieved with high UVA outputs eg
> 438 W.m-2 but low % UVB
• Despite low % UVB, most solaria emitted
more UVB and UVA than found in mid-
latitude summer sunlight
• Solaria emissions in Australia would seem
to be the highest in the world !
38. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the staff of the ARPANSA UVR
Section and the Regulation Branch who
assisted with the measurements of UVR
emission from solaria.
Thanks also to the members of the
Solarium Industry Groups on the
Standards Committee who kindly made
their solaria available for measurement.
