TAKE CARE WITH FUN IN THE SUN

REGARDLESS of the colour of your skin, you gotta read this. That’s a very serious request. If there was ever a glaring misconception, it’s that only white people are vulnerable to skin cancer. And there’s lots of false information too. Does that make you sit up and take note?

Let’s turn the clock back to the days before religious views and faiths started to emerge – let’s say around 4 000 years ago. Most people worshipped the sun. It gave you light, brightness and warmth, while accelerating the growth of everything you planted. It was an amazingly powerful and apparently beneficent thing in the sky. Just like its junior relative – fire - on the ground. They both do great things, but be careful!

Tanned

Fast forward to the writer’s youth; rather more recently than 4 000 years ago. When summer came in England, you would get the occasional sunny day. The moment the sun appeared, millions of whites would throw themselves under the sun to get a tanned skin. Today we see that as utterly crazy, but in those days, if you could get to the beaches of France, Spain or Italy, your aim was to become as sunburnt as possible. I remember in my teenage visits to France, the encouraging words of the young ladies on the beach – ‘Chrees, tu est bronzé’ (Chris you are getting tanned). Unfortunately, it was skin colour change, not the rest of me that they were admiring.

On return to England, I’d race to the first party in my white shirt and white trousers, to show up the darker skin. But now, decades later, I have regular and expensive medical treatment to deal with the sun damage. And if I ignore that, it can kill me. The purpose of this article is far less about the damage my ignorance – the world’s ignorance – did to me, and far more to alert fellow humans that every skin is vulnerable to skin cancer from sun damage. And it is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer. Around 80-90 per cent of skin cancers are caused by the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays, of which the UV-A version has the greatest depth of skin penetration. In fact, solar radiation is categorised as a carcinogen; meaning it increases your risk of developing cancer.

Melanoma

But the good news for black people is that they are around 30 times less likely to develop melanoma (skin cancer) than non-Hispanic white people, due to their higher content of melanin, the body’s natural skin pigment that provides protection against the UV rays of the sun. But it is important to bear in mind that vulnerability to melanoma is not restricted to whites. So, whatever the colour of your skin, please take this message seriously. And it is important to note that the statistics show that black people who do develop skin cancer have a significantly lower five-year survival rate than non-Hispanic white patients.

So what to do for protection? Use sunscreen all the time is the answer. You might think that everyone is on the same page regarding skin cancer and the use of sunscreen. But watch out! While the social media, especially TikTok, give a lot of decent advice health and skincare, with sunscreen there’s plenty of misinformation. There are false claims that sunscreen is toxic, and worse than sun damage; even that the ingredients can cause cancer. Others allege that sunscreen-not the sun-ages your skin. “Stop wearing sunscreen,” says a TikTok influencer with 1.6 million followers and 36 million likes.  There are many eminent dermatologists – that’s skin specialists – who guarantee that the Tik Tok influencer’s advice is a dangerous load of rubbish.

Leading Seattle dermatologist, Dr Heather Rogers, has criticised several high-profile individuals for supporting the view that sunscreen itself causes cancer. And that misinformation has had an impact. One survey, from the Orlando Health Cancer Institute, found that 1 in 7 American adults, under age 35, believes using sunscreen daily is more harmful than direct sun exposure. That’s incorrect and needs comprehensive public attention. Otherwise, there will be many totally preventable deaths.

Dermatologists generally recommend that applying sunscreen should be a daily routine even with cloudy weather. The barrier type of sunscreen causes the UV rays to bounce off the skin, while the chemical version absorbs the UV and converts it into heat energy, which then dissipates. But the experts do remind us of the important caveat of your skin needing some UV exposure to the sun, to provide the vitamin D that strengthens bones, muscles and overall health. But a fairly strong body of opinion takes the view that sunscreen – in proportion to its strength - does allow a small but adequate amount of UV radiation to enter the skin. If in doubt, you could just do five - 15 minutes, two - three times a week, in the sun without the sunscreen; your choice.

In the meantime, all of us should carry out a periodic self-examination of the skin, duly guided by the respected medical websites. The individual then has a lifelong self-help programme in operation. And, in the event of worrying signs, you seek medical attention. Above all, prevention is always more effective – less expensive and far less uncomfortable – than treatment and repair. Let’s get the sunscreen. It has been the cornerstone of skin cancer prevention for decades. It isn’t cheap, but it beats death hands down. Where we can’t afford it, we get more sensible with the personal exposure and protective clothing.

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