A graded work site intervention program to improve sun protection and skin cancer awareness in outdoor workers in Israel.

Objectives: A graded worksite intervention program to improve sun protection and skin cancer awareness of outdoor workers was implemented and evaluated longitudinally over a period of 20 months.

Methods: Outdoor male workers (144/213 recruits) from geographically separated units of the Israel National Water Company were allocated to complete (n = 37), partial (n = 72) or minimal (n = 35) intervention groups. Subsequent to the assignment and training of local safety officers, an educational and medical screening package was provided to the corresponding groups either once, or repeatedly a year later.

A new computer program for mass screening of visual defects in preschool children.

Aims: To test the effectiveness of a PC computer program for detecting vision disorders which could be used by non-trained personnel, and to determine the prevalence of visual impairment in a sample population of preschool children in the city of Beer-Sheba, Israel.

Methods: 292 preschool children, aged 4-6 years, were examined in the kindergarten setting, using the computer system and "gold standard" tests. Visual acuity and stereopsis were tested and compared using Snellen type symbol charts and random dot stereograms respectively.

Safety of solar phototherapy at the Dead Sea.

Background: Climatotherapy at the Dead Sea is effective for patients with psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, and other diseases. Although impressive improvement has been reported for patients with psoriasis, with a clearance rate of more than 80% after a 4-week stay, questions regarding the safety of this treatment have arisen.

Objective And Methods: We compare the mean UVB radiation intensities absorbed by psoriatic patients undergoing a 4-week climatotherapy under supervision at the DMZ Rehabilitation Clinic of Ein-Bokek (The Dead Sea, Israel), with similar climatotherapy studies in Sweden and Switzerland.

Climatotherapy of psoriasis and hypertension in elderly patients at the Dead-Sea.

The responses of various age-groups of psoriatic patients to a four-week period of climatotherapy at the Dead-Sea was compared in three separate studies. In the first study, plaque clearance following climatotherapy was evaluated in a group of 688 psoriatics, as a function of age, sex and duration of the disease. Neither the age of the patient when treated, nor the duration of the disease, appeared to influence the degree of plaque clearance.

Intercomparison of global, ultraviolet B and A radiation measurements in the Dead Sea region (Ein Bokek) and Beer Sheva.

Thousands of patients suffering from psoriasis have been treated successfully in the Dead Sea area by climatological methods, without medication. This high rate of success, measured in terms of partial to complete plaque clearance and reported to exceed 85% after 3-4 weeks of treatment, has been assumed to be associated with a unique ultraviolet (UV) radiation environment present in the Dead Sea region. In order to broaden our knowledge of the UV radiation environment at the Dead Sea, continuous monitoring of UV (both B and A) and global radiation has recently been initiated at two sites--Ein Bokek (located in the vicinity of the Dead Sea 375 m below mean sea level) and Beer Sheva (315 m above mean sea level)--to facilitate an intercomparison of their respective radiation intensities.