Skin and sun exposure

Fisherman commonly experience a significant number of cutaneous problems, related to the exposure to environmental factors due to their working conditions. Among these factors, sun exposure is able to determine both acute and chronic skin damage, mostly linked to the effects of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation on epidermal and dermal structures. In particular, UV-A appears to play a major role in the deterioration of dermal structure leading to the photoaged appearance of the skin, while UV-B is mainly responsible for skin cancers. Peculiar clinical features of skin damage in fishermen include dryness, irregular pigmentation, wrinkling, stellate pseudoscars, elastosis, inelasticity, telangiectasia, comedones and sebaceous hyperplasia. Furtheremore, the high incidence of non-melanoma skin cancers, on sun-exposed areas, confirms the need for occupational health policies focusing on issues such as photoprotection.