So you find one website that claims to disprove that sunlight causes skin cancer and believe it proves everything? Good luck!! A tan is actually damaged skin whether you like to believe that or not.

Repeated studies - epidemiological studies on populations - carried out in different parts of the world on different populations over several decades have repeatedly shown that exposure to ultra-violet radiation is linked to the development of skin cancers. Sunscreen does not damage your health, excessive sunlight can. Sunscreen works either by a) blocking out ultra-violet rays or b) absorbing them. That said, saying that we will absorb dangerous amounts of chemicals from sunscreen is baloney. If the skin was that permeable we'd be absorbing everything we came in touch with. Why bother to put food in our mouths? We could just smear it over ourselves.

Now sunlight exposure and Vitamin D has been shown to have a protective effect for some tumours but it's a double edged sword, exposure, especially in the early years of life is linked to skin cancers and also other nasties like melanoma of the eye (yep, you can get it in your eye).

Given the number of people who actually die from melanoma each year and the suffering this causes to themselves and their families, believing this stuff is highly foolish. However it's your skin and your life in the end. Eat lots of berries if you wish, but you'll still end up looking like an old leather handbag.




[edit on 13-5-2007 by Crispy_Chicken]

the best way to look at the issue if you're starting from scratch is to compare melanoma incidence of people working indoors and, say surfers, construction workers and other people who generally spent a lot of their time exposed to the sun.

i'd be extremely surprised if the surfer category had a higher rate of cancer. the more you find out about cancer, the less you believe the explanations given by the media.

a tan is not damage to the skin...its the movement of melin
silly
and a tan does protect against UV
so there is so validity to the basic statement.
can you expolate that into the bigger statement it prevents cancer...well yes but its also ovbious that skin cancer is directly related to exposure so the truth is governed by moderation.

Melanomas are one skin cancer that has been linked to sun exposure. Another type with definite causational relationship is that heavy sun exposures lead to actinic keratosis, which is a premalignant skin lesion.

You know the SPF+ rating on sunscreen bottles? And how the higher the number the better proteciton the sunscreen gives? Well a tan has an SPF+ rating of about 2. Of course I am not talking about naturally dark skinned people with higher levels of melanin but the average white person who gets a tan. So a tan gives minimal sun protection.

The incidence of melanoma is indeed curious. Indoor workers whose pattern of exposure is irregular - being on weekends or holidays has a greater risk of developing melanoma than outdoor workers. That doesn't mean outdoor workers/surfers etc can't get melanoma though, and there is another type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma which is also dangerous.

[edit on 13-5-2007 by Crispy_Chicken]

Originally posted by Crispy_Chicken
The incidence of melanoma is indeed curious. Indoor workers whose pattern of exposure is irregular - being on weekends or holidays has a greater risk of developing melanoma than outdoor workers. That doesn't mean outdoor workers/surfers etc can't get melanoma though, and there is another type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma which is also dangerous.

Since these people get less sun exposure, wouldn't they be more likely to use sunscreen products that contain cancer-causing chemicals and increase their risk for cancer?

Medical literature is never going to state the truth. The FDA is never going to state the truth. The only way we can learn the truth about cancer-causing chemicals in the products we use are through online health awareness organizations. And the FDA is gaining the power to shut them down because they don't want us to know the truth.