INTRODUCTION: Actinic cheilitis (AC) is considered to be a pre-malignant lesion or an incipient and superficial form of lip squamous cell carcinoma. It is commonly found in individuals whose occupational activities are related to chronic sun exposure and the definitive diagnosis is performed with biopsy. Althoug Exfoliative cytology has been used as a screening procedure to evaluate cancer of the oral cavity no studies have proposed the use of exfoliative cytologic analysis to evaluate and diagnose AC. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate lower lip lesions on fishermen related to chronic solar exposure using clinical, cytologic and histopathologic analyses. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Smears taken from the vermilion of the lower lips of 125 fishermen and 30 control individuals were subjected to cytologic analysis. RESULTS: The harvested cells were sufficient for cytologic analysis in 83.2% of the samples. Sixteen fishermen exhibited prominent lower lip lesions that justified biopsy and histological studies. In total, 4 specimens were malignant (3.2%), and 12 displayed epithelial dysplasia, demonstrating that the prevalence of epithelial dysplasia and malignant lesions was high among the fishermen population. These conditions were strongly associated with infiltration and blurring of the vermilion margin of the lower lip. CONCLUSION: The cytologic analysis was not useful for detecting epithelial dysplasia or malignant alterations.