Sun exposure is not the culprit behind the worldwide skin cancer epidemic raging for the last 80 years. The misguided public health policy on sun exposure and sunscreens has been doing more harm than good – increasing the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, putting more toxic chemicals into our body, and poisoning the ocean ecosystem.
- From an evolutional perspective, our early shirtless ancestors were in the sun hunting and gathering for millions of years, and farming for the last 10,000 years before the industrial revolution. If the sun by itself caused so many skin cancers, humanity would have been wiped out long ago.
- Before the 1920s, skin cancer was rare. Since the 1940s, skin cancer incidence has skyrocketed up to 16-fold in different parts of the world. But during the same period, more and more people spend less and less time outdoors.
- According to World Cancer Research Fund International, all ten countries with the highest rate of melanoma (the deadliest skin cancer) except for Australia and New Zealand are in high latitude regions – Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia, and Finland.
- In the US, except for Arizona, none of the states with high melanoma incidence are in the Sun Belt.
- A 2023 system review of literature by researchers at Yale University found the risk of melanoma is not higher among individuals with outdoor occupations.
- In China, the rate of melanoma has risen by more than 3-fold since 1990s. But during the same period, most areas were increasingly covered by thick smog – not much UV light reached the ground.
- Across the world, it is estimated over 14,000 tons of sunscreen have been sold, bought, and applied each year but not the slightest dent has been made on skin cancer incidents.
The bottom line: It cannot be any clearer that sun exposure is not the culprit behind the worldwide skin cancer epidemic. Sadly, owing to the fear of skin cancer, too little rather than too much sun exposure has become a significant threat to our health due to vitamin D deficiency. Let’s not forget all living things on the planet owe their life to the sun – we need sensible sun exposure to stay healthy. Of course, we should avoid sunburns which can indeed damage the DNA in the skin cells. But keep in mind, sunburn can be prevented by proper conditioning (gradual exposure) without using sunscreens which should be applied as the last resort.
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