MEDICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF UV RADIATION.

Book · Thu Jul 26 04:00:00 EDT 2001

OSTI ID:785051

SUTHERLAND, B M ^[1]

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1. BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY

Organisms living on the earth are exposed to solar radiation, including its ultraviolet (UV) components (for general reviews, the reader is referred to Smith [1] and Young et al. [2]). UV wavelength regions present in sunlight are frequently designated as UVB (290-320 nm) and UVA (320-400 nm). In today's solar spectrum, UVA is the principal UV component, with UVB present at much lower levels. Ozone depletion will increase the levels of UVB reaching the biosphere, but the levels of UVA will not be changed significantly [3]. Because of the high efficiency of UVB in producing damage in biological organisms in the laboratory experiments, it has sometimes been assumed that UVA has little or no adverse biological effects. However, accumulating data [4, 5], including action spectra (efficiency of biological damage as a function of wavelength of radiation; see Section 5) for DNA damage in alfalfa seedlings [6], in human skin [7], and for a variety of plant damages (Caldwell, this volume) indicate that UVA can induce damage in DNA in higher organisms. Thus, understanding the differential effects of UVA and UVB wavebands is essential for estimating the biological consequences of stratospheric ozone depletion.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Research (ER) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-98CH10886
• OSTI ID: 785051
• Report Number(s): BNL--68538; KP1102020; KP1102020
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ALFALFA
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOSPHERE
DNA
DNA DAMAGES
EFFICIENCY
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
OZONE
SEEDLINGS
SOLAR RADIATION
SPECTRA
WAVELENGTHS