Equivalence coding of fluorescent solarium lamps

In March 2008 marking of fluorescent solarium lamps with a so-called equivalence code was introduced through a new standard for measuring and marking of fluorescent UV lamps. This code appears on some fluorescent lamps and shall be printed on all fluorescent lamps produced after November 2011. It shows the intensity of the fluorescent lamp and the amount of short-wave radiation. The intention with the equivalence coding is to make it easier to find fluorescent lamps with about the same level of UV radiation as the lamps a tanning model was classified with. For example, a 100W lamp can be marked like this:

Equivalence code 100-R-29/2.4


In detail this code means that it is a 100W lamp, that it is a reflector type lamp, that the total erythema weighted irradiance in the wavelength range 250-400 nm is 29 mW/m² and that the relation between Non melanoma skin cancer weighted (NMSC) UV under 320 nm and over 320 nm is 2.4.

If a solarium is measured with a lamp with the equivalence code above, you get an interval of equivalence codes allowed in this solarium. This will be listed in the model specification as:

Equivalence code interval 100-R-(22-29)/(2.0-2.8)

This means that all 100W reflector lamps where the first number is between 22 and 29 and also the second number is between 2.0 and 2.8 is allowed to use in the model, independent of whether or not the lamps are listed in the model specification.