Estimate of annual ultraviolet-A exposures in a car

Abstract

The annual solar UVA exposures in four cars were estimated by measuring the UVA irradiances in the vehicles in each of the four seasons and in the morning, noon and afternoon. For the cars with untinted windows the maximum UVA irradiances in cars do not necessarily occur at noon when the outside irradiances are at their highest. Additionally, they do not occur in summer. The range of annual UVA exposures between 9:00 and 15:00 EST is 1918 to 6177 J cm-2 for the cars without the after market window tint. These correspond to 5% to 17% of the ambient UVA on a horizontal plane over the same period outside the cars. The range is for the different sites in the car. For the car with the aftermarket window tint, the range of the annual UVA exposures were 489 to 2969 J cm-2 or 1% to 8% of the ambient UVA.