Assessment of Biologically Effective Solar Ultraviolet Exposures for Court Staff and Competitors During a Major Australian Tennis Tournament

Abstract

Sport is an integral and enduring part of many societies, such as Australia. Participation in outdoor sports, such as tennis, comes with a very real risk of dangerous solar ultraviolet exposure which can result in erythema (sunburn), serious conditions such as skin cancer, including melanoma, and eye conditions such as cataracts and pterygium. This study remotely assesses the effective ultraviolet exposures in response to the increased sun safety awareness at a major summertime tennis tournament in Australia. The assessment only uses publicly accessible data and information. It was found that tournament organizers have effectively adopted sun‐safe protocols into the uniform policy that the court officials (judges and ball kids) are mandated to follow. The combination of sun‐participant geometry and the photoprotection provided by uniforms significantly reduced the ambient ultraviolet exposure, which was recorded to be as high as 9.9 SED h−1, to just 1.0 and 0.5 SED h−1 for ball kids and judges, respectively, compared to up to 2.0 SED h−1 for players. Even though caution is needed against complacency with sun safety, with the need for the court officials and the players to still apply sunscreen, the court officials provided persistent visual role modeling of sun‐safe behaviors.

Photoprotection in Outdoor Sports: A Review of the Literature and Recommendations to Reduce Risk Among Athletes

“… We suggest applying sunscreen irrespective of the UV index (UVI). While general advice has been to apply sunscreen on days when the UVI is over 3, prolonged exposure at lower levels can still result in high UV exposure and even sunburn [ 79 ]. Where reasonable, training schedules should be adjusted to avoid midday exposure (10 am–2 pm).…”

Slip, Slop, Slap, Slide, Seek and Sport: A Systematic Scoping Review of Sun Protection in Sport in Australasia

“…The search criteria yielded 17 studies spanning almost 30 years of investigations into sun-exposure and sun-protection of sports participants within Australia (n = 12), New Zealand (n = 4) and in both countries (n = 1) [23,24,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. Studies were grouped into four general categories: (i) UVR-exposure measured by dosimetry; (ii) UVR-exposure estimated remotely; (iii) observed sun-protective behaviors; (iv) self-reported sunexposure and sun-protective behaviors (Table 1).…”

“…Sporting activities and events included athletics, bushwalking, cricket, cycling, field hockey, golf, rowing, rugby league, sailing, snow skiing, snowboarding, soccer, surf lifesaving, surfing, swimming, tennis, and triathlon. Most studies examined the sun-protection behaviors of participants in the club/recreational sport environment (n=12), while studies of school sport (n=3) [24,[32][33] and elite sport (n=2) [29,42] were less represented.…”

Evaluation of the Long‐term Cumulative UVA Facial Exposure of Queensland School Teachers derived for an Extended Period from the OMI Satellite Irradiance

“…GCF is an anatomical Geometric Conversion Factor relating the incident UV received on a horizontal plane to a cylindrical upright approximation of the human body (15). The function of the solar zenith angle fitted to the data in Pope and Godar (15) and applied (16,17) here is:where GCF peaks at SZA = 75° (0.62) and is a minimum at SZA = 0° (0.20). Thus, for an upright figure, the face is expected to receive the highest proportion of the available ambient when the sun is closer to the horizon, either approaching or following noon in the morning and afternoon, depending on the season.…”

“…GCF is an anatomical Geometric Conversion Factor relating the incident UV received on a horizontal plane to a cylindrical upright approximation of the human body (15). The function of the solar zenith angle fitted to the data in Pope and Godar (15) and applied (16,17) here is:…”