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Understanding
Skin, Sunlight & Skin Cancer
By Professor John Hawk and Dr Jane McGregor
IMPORTANT NOTICE
This information is intended not as a substitute for personal medical advice but as a supplement to that advice for the patient who wishes to understand more about his or her condition.
Before taking any form of treatment YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR MEDICAL PRACTITIONER.
In particular (without limit) you should note that advances in medical science occur rapidly and some of the information about drugs and treatment may very soon be out of date.
Contents
Introduction
How UV radiation affects your skin
Sunburn, tanning and other changes
Prevention of sun-induced disorders
Treatment of sun-induced disorders
Introduction
Warnings by doctors that sunlight and sunbathing can be dangerous are comparatively new. Only in the past 30 or so years have health educators tried to discourage people from exposing their bodies to too much sunlight; until then, a suntan was seen by many people as a sign of good health. Even now, some people prefer to ignore warnings about sunbathing because they enjoy it and believe that a tan makes them feel and look better, so they try to make the most of fine days by getting out in the sun as much as possible. However, the truth is that too much exposure to the sun is not good for our skins. In fact, a suntan is actually visible evidence of some permanent damage which may ultimately encourage the development of skin ageing and cancer.
The aim of this booklet is to explain how the action of sunlight on your skin leads to these changes, causing both short- and long-term damage, and to give practical advice on how to prevent such injury. Following this advice doesn’t mean denying yourself the delights of sunshine altogether, but rather will help you enjoy them more safely.
Our taste for a suntan is relatively modern: as recently as 100 years ago most people wanted a pale skin. Working people who spent their days out of doors became tanned and weatherbeaten; the rich and fashionable preferred to avoid sunlight, wearing large hats and carrying sunshades, and saw pale complexions as a social and fashion asset. Northern Europeans certainly visited the south of France and Italy to escape the worst of their winter, but they still avoided the Mediterranean sun during the summer months.
Attitudes began to change in the 1930s as people started to enjoy outdoor recreations more – walking, camping and cycling, for example – and a suntan gradually became desirable for many of both sexes. After World War II, cheap package holidays allowed more and more people to spend a couple of weeks soaking up the sun on Mediterranean shores, whilst beaches became very popular holiday destinations in the USA, Australasia and South Africa.
It was around this time in Australia, however, that alarms were eventually sounded, attention being drawn to the high rate of skin cancer in white-skinned people living in Queensland, although European researchers had certainly suggested the possibility of such problems since the start of the twentieth century. Public health campaigns were then started to encourage people to avoid too much exposure to strong sunlight, to use sunscreens, and to learn to recognise skin cancers at an early stage. Evidence from around the world also showed that skin cancers, and melanoma in particular, were rapidly becoming more common, doubling in frequency every 12 years or so. However, many people still choose to ignore these warnings. In the last two decades, there have also been increasing suggestions that depletion of the ozone layer by atmospheric pollution may be steadily making sunlight even more dangerous. Scientists are not yet certain that this is true in practice, although it will become so if we do not take more environmental care in the future.
We now know that repeated summer exposure to sunlight in the middle of the day or tropical sunlight causes skin photoageing – dryness, brown and red blotchiness, sagging and wrinkling – especially in people with fair complexions. In addition, it may lead to skin cancers, which are now one of the most common cancers worldwide. There are some 50,000 new cases each year in the UK, including about 7,500 cases of malignant melanoma, which is responsible for about 75 per cent of the 2,500 annual deaths from skin cancer. It is also an especially significant cause of death in those aged between 26 and 35 who are otherwise relatively healthy. However, doctors estimate that around 90 per cent of all skin cancers are preventable by taking care in the sun.
This book discusses all matters to do with your skin and sunlight, including how you can recognise skin cancer in its early stages, when treatment is extremely likely to be successful. Advice is also given about the prevention of such cancers, as well as of sunburn and photoageing, and about the value of sunscreens. It is, of course, especially important to protect your children against the sun (see page 46), because they are too young to be aware of its dangers, and exposure in early life is thought likely to play a relatively important part in the later development of skin cancers.
Sunlight does, of course, lift the spirits hugely, especially after a long dark winter, but the rays responsible are not thought to be the damaging ultraviolet ones, but rather those usually safe ones that bring warmth and light. The advice in this book is therefore intended to help you to enjoy the great psychological and other benefits of sunshine without suffering its hidden harmful effects.
