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15 May, 2003

Solar UV damage and the UV risk calculator

Introduction

There are a number of SOPs that have factors for ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure that refer to a "solar UV damage factor ratio".

The only practical way to calculate a solar UV damage factor ratio is by using the UV risk calculator software.

This bulletin provides information and advice on the formula used in the solar UV damage factor ratio and on using the UV risk calculator.

Background

Exposure to UV radiation is a normal part of daily life.  To connect a UV-related disease to service, that service needs to have increased the amount of UV exposure a person has received.

RMA SOPs with UV factors refer to having a solar UV damage factor ratio of at least 1.1 (RH) or 1.2 (BOP).  These ratios equate to having an increased risk of solar UV damage of at least 10% (RH) or 20% (BOP), due to service.

Formula

The solar UV damage factor ratio formula in the SOPs compares lifetime solar exposure, including service, to what would have been the lifetime exposure had the veteran not served.

Exposure during the period/s of service that would have occurred if the veteran had not served cannot be known, so must be estimated.  The formula does this by averaging lifetime non-service exposure and using that average exposure in place of the actual service exposure.

The formula is represented below.

* excluding service

The calculations required by the formula are highly complex and a great deal of data about a person's UV exposure throughout the different stages of life is required if it is to be applied with precision.

UV risk calculator

The UV risk calculator provides the means of applying the formula.

The calculator presents results as percentage increases (or decreases) in risk due to service for each nominated body site (face, hands, arms, legs, and back).  A 10% increase corresponds to a solar UV damage factor ratio of 1.1.

Important features of the calculator

For guidance on using the calculator, see Appendix 1.

In the personal details section the evaluation date should be the date of clinical onset of the disease.

Data are entered separately for service periods and for non-service periods.  Non-service periods before age 20 are broken into 5 year blocks and after age 20 into 10 year blocks.

If the veteran's circumstances changed during one of those blocks, the data entered should represent an average of the circumstances during that time (see Appendix 1 – averaging).

The calculator calls for data to be entered for non-service exposure for the whole of the veteran's life up to the evaluation date.  As a result there will be one or more blocks of time for non-service periods that will overlap or coincide with dates of service.  For these time blocks:

• the data entered should be the average of the non-service circumstances during that period.  However,
• If service constitutes the whole or a significant majority of the time block then data that represent the average circumstances throughout the veteran's whole non-service life should be entered.

In cases where a veteran has both operational and eligible service it should be noted that operational service can be added to eligible service to see if a 20% increase is achieved, however eligible service cannot be added to operational service.  The following steps should be followed:

1. Evaluate UV risk with both eligible and operational service recorded

If at least 20% accept;

If at least 10% go to Step 2;

If less than 10% reject.

2. Evaluate with operational service only

If at least 10% accept;

If less than 10% reject.

Major factors affecting UV risk

The factor that most determines whether service increased the risk of UV damage is the amount of time spent having sun exposure during service compared to non-service periods.

The next most important factor is the age at which service exposure occurred.  The earlier the solar exposure the more heavily it is weighted in the calculations.

The location (latitude) and environment (e.g. being at sea) during service are relevant but are of less significance that the above two factors.  This is contrary to the common perception that location is the most important factor.

Other considerations

Two veterans with near identical service could have very different solar UV damage factor ratios.  Civilian exposure very much influences the outcome.  The question is not “was UV exposure high on service?”, the question is “did service increase exposure over that which would otherwise have occurred?”.

Body sites:  The ratios for different body sites can vary considerably depending on the extent of clothing cover worn during service and civilian lives.  For example, service may have less impact on the face and hands, exposed to the sun throughout life, than on other sites that may have been protected by clothing except during service.

When to use the calculator

Theoretically the UV calculator should be used in all cases, as it is the only practical way to determine a solar UV damage factor ratio with any accuracy.

Use of the calculator is understandably unpopular, because of the difficulties and complexities involved in obtaining and entering the necessary data.

Decision makers should be aware that for quality assurance purposes, a high impact error will occur if the UV calculator is not used and there is not adequate explanation of how the UV risk factors in the SOPs were or were not met.

Decision makers with:

1. an adequate understanding of the factors that determine a solar UV damage factor ratio (not just service latitude, or high level exposure on service, as explained above) and
2. experience in the use of the calculator

will be able to judge when a claim clearly meets or clearly fails the SOP requirements.

In such circumstances use of the UV calculator will not be necessary, provided there is adequate information available about lifetime and service UV exposure and an adequate explanation of the decision is documented.

The calculator should be used in any borderline case.

Remember! If you are having any problems with SOPs, or SOPs in CCPS, talk to us!

Appendix 1:  Guidance on using the UV risk calculator

Calculator location

Start  Departmental  Applications  Reference Tools  UV Risk Calculator

Performing data entry and calculation

Press the Enter Data button on the top toolbar.

Complete the personal details.

Proceed to the data entry screens.

At completion of data entry press the Evaluate button on the top toolbar.

Information required by the calculator

The calculator breaks up a person's life into components and requires data to be entered separately for each component.

The person's life is first broken up into blocks of time:

• 5-year blocks to age 20 years
• 10-year blocks after age 20
• 1-year blocks during service.

Each time block is further divided into working week (or equivalent), weekend and holiday periods.

For each period within each time block data are required for each of the following parameters affecting solar UV exposure:

•      Location / latitude
•      Outdoor environment – situation, ground cover and shade (see below)
•      Time spent indoors or outdoors
•      Exposure level for each body site (see below).

The necessary information can be obtained through completion of the Solar Damage Assessment form and/or information already on file including service records and previous claims showing an employment history.

Modifying default values

The calculator has default values which must be modified for each veteran.  The default values are modified by clicking inside the middle column of each screen, at which point a modify button will appear in the box.  More than one period at a time may be selected for modification by clicking and dragging or by using the Ctrl, Shift and arrow keys as for other applications.

After clicking on the modify button a selection can be made from the options that appear below; however the new selection must be double clicked to make sure it appears in the top section of the box under “new location” or “new description”.

For locations and their respective latitudes a predefined list is available. If another location and latitude is required then the details can be manually entered into the module.

There is an option to toggle between age periods (eg 0-5) and the relevant corresponding years (eg 1944-1949) by double clicking inside that column.

Environment Definitions

Situation Options

☼rural means a locations that is in a bushland, pastoral or agricultural setting

☼urban means a location that is either a city or a town

☼maritime means a location that is either on the sea, ocean, lake or major river; or directly adjacent to that body of water

Ground Cover Options

☼green means a terrain of predominantly green vegetation

☼brown means a terrain of bare soil, clay or a terrain of buildings

☼sand means an area which is predominantly sand

☼black means a terrain predominantly of asphalt, such as an aerodrome

☼water means an area which is predominantly water, such as the sea

☼snow means a terrain that is covered in snow

Shade Factors

☼none refers to environmental situations such as open fields/plains, tundra, beach, desert, ocean

☼light refers to lightly timbered country, low density housing

☼moderate refers to open forest, high density housing

☼heavy refers to jungle, dense forest

Body site exposures

Different parts of the body are exposed to different degrees of solar UV exposure depending on the extent of clothing and sun screen that is worn.

Default values are set as follows:

Face — 1.00

Hands — 1.00

Back — 0.05

Legs — 0.05

Arms — 0.05

1.00 = no protection from UV exposure by clothing or sun screen.

0.50 = 50% protection from UV exposure: e.g. wearing sun screen some of the time or wearing clothing that affords some protection from UV exposure

0.00 = no UV exposure: full coverage by UV protective clothing

The default values should be modified according to the clothing and sun screen protection used: e.g. for a person wearing a brimmed hat when in the sun a value for the face of 0.5 would be appropriate.

Averaging

The amount of data required by the calculator is reduced by breaking a person's life into blocks of time rather than obtaining and entering data covering every change of circumstance throughout a person's life.

As a consequence of using time blocks there will be veterans whose circumstances change within the course of a time block.  “Averaging” is then used to provide representative data.

If one location, environment or other variable applies for the majority of a time block then it is reasonable to use that location, environment etc, for that time block.

If there are multiple changes in circumstance or major differences between circumstances applying in a particular time block then judgement will need to be used in selecting values that represent the veteran's circumstances during that period.  A beneficial approach should be adopted if such averaging is necessary.