SOME FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON THE USE OF REPAIR-DEFECTIVE ORGANISMS AS BIOLOGICAL DOSIMETERS FOR BROAD-BAND ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION SOURCES

Abstract— The extreme variation in biological effectiveness of the various components of solar ultraviolet radiation (solar UV) which reaches the earth's surface, especially photons of wavelengths between 295 and 330 nm, makes the dosimetry of solar UV a complex and, as yet, unresolved problem. A proper weighting of the various components of solar UV would permit expression of expsoure as a single parameter (dose). Weighting could compensate for the variations in composition of solar UV which might occur during exposure or the differences in sources of UV radiations; weighting would permit comparison of exposures at various locations on the earth and extrapolation of laboratory observations to field situations where wavelength composition might be rather different. Various radiation-sensitive microorganisms have been proposed as biological dosimeters. Biological dosimeters automatically weight the subcomponents of solar UV differently than a purely physical irradiance meter. We have examined the available evidence regarding the weighting which repair-defective mutants provide in comparison with response of a number of wild-type organisms and would caution investigators that, for broad-band UV sources, especially those with significant biological actions through the range of 300–330 nm, repair-sensitive mutants may improperly weight the components, leading to errors of dosimetry and thus to possible errors of interpretation of results of solar UV exposure of wild-type organisms