Senior managers' awareness of sun protection policy predicts implementation of worksite sun safety in a randomized trial

Association of occupational sun safety policy and actions in state transportation sector in the United States

BACKGROUND

Occupational sun protection is recommended by government health authorities. Sun safety policies and predictors of managers' reports of sun safety actions were assessed.

METHODS

Written policies from 21 state departments of transportation (DOTs) enrolled in a randomized trial to test methods for scaling-up an occupational sun safety intervention were coded for sun safety content at baseline. Managers (n = 1113) supervising outdoor workers reported on sun safety actions in a baseline survey.

RESULTS

Twenty state DOTs (95.2%) have a policy with at least one sun protection component. Sun safety training was increased at workplaces with a written sun safety policy (p < 0.001) and unwritten standard procedures on sun protection (p < 0.001). Reported sun safety actions were highest where there was a written sun safety policy (p < 0.001) and unwritten standard procedures on sun protection (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Policies are essential for the implementation of employee sun safety. There is room for improvement in existing policies of state DOTs.

Availability of Hats That Meet Australian Sun-safety Standards at a Major Canberra Shopping Complex

Good sun-safety practice includes wearing sun-protective hats that must meet defined photoprotective criteria such as the 2017 Australian/New Zealand standard (AS/NZS 4399:2017). This study investigated the availability of sun-safe hats during a three-day cross-sectional survey in November 2019 by visiting every shop in a single large multi-store shopping complex in Australia. Hats were categorized according to whether the target customer was an adult or child prior to the assessment of design suitability for sun safety according to the standard. Of the 260 shops in the study shopping center, 30 (12%) sold hats. Of the 524 hats examined in the study, 69% of all commercially available hats for adults and children did not meet the standard. Of the 9% of hats that had swing tags claiming an Ultraviolet Protection Factor of 50 (UPF-50), about half were not sun safe. Further research is needed to investigate the possibility of whether sun-safety hat standards should be given to retailers of hats for display, or whether manufacturers could be required to put warning labels on all hats that do not meet sun-safety hat standards.