CHARACTERIZATION AND APPLICATION OF UV DETECTOR SPORE FILMS - THE SENSITIVITY CURVE OF A NEW DETECTOR SYSTEM PROVIDES GOOD SIMILARITY TO THE ACTION SPECTRUM FOR UV-INDUCED ERYTHEMA IN HUMAN SKIN

The UV action spectra of two different biologically weighing UV photof ilms (spore films), produced with Bacillus subtilis spores (wildtype a nd DNA repair-deficient strains), were determined at the Okasaki large spectrograph (OLS) within the wavelength range 254-400 nm. The action spectrum of the mutant strain film was modified with a cut-off filter , yielding a sensitivity curve similar to the action spectrum for eryt hemal induction in human skin. The detector system was tested in a fie ld study and in a study using lamps with different UV spectral composi tions. The system demonstrated its applicability over the spectral reg ion from lambda=290 nm to the visible light, The system could be calib rated to give the minimal erythemal dose.