OBJECTIVETo understand the awareness of occupational hazards to ultraviolet (UV) and sunscreen awareness, protective measures in Wuhan City traffic police on duty outside.

METHODSThe investigation included questionnaire survey in Wuhan City 367 traffic police on duty outside, talk with them face to face, fill in the questionnaires, and medical examine skin of exposed parts of body of them and 134 Wuhan City administration staffs.

RESULTSThey understand UV harm to the human body and skin well (94.8% of them know that UV harm to skin), did not understand sun skin care and protective measures enough, and did not adopt enough sun skin care and protective measures (only 3.8% of them use sun skin care more than twice); but contrast to older persons, younger traffic police had better understanding of UV radiation damage on the human body and the skin, and sunscreen products and protective measures, paid more attention to sunscreen, and had less chance of sunburn (in the past 5 years, 18.3% of younger traffic police had sunburnt more than 3 times, but for older traffic police, the number is 30.3%). Traffic police had more skin problems than administration staffs in exposed parts of body (Traffic police face appears oily and large pores, facial pigmentation spots, face telangiectasia, deep wrinkles crude rates respectively were 73.7%, 40.4%, 36.5%, 10.4%, but for administration staffs, the numbers respectively were 26.1%, 15.7%, 15.7%, 1.5%).

CONCLUSIONUV can induce skin problems in exposed parts of body. The traffic police should be enhanced the publicity and education on UV-related knowledge and occupational hazards, especially for older traffic police.