Children: walk on the sunny side of the street
Adolescents who spend their lives inside should get out and walk
in the sun |
Some British adolescents are not exposed to sufficient sunlight to satisfy their body’s requirement for vitamin D, says Brian Diffey, of Newcastle General Hospital, in an editorial published in the BMJ (2005;331:3). However, he adds that there is not enough evidence to abandon current skin cancer awareness campaigns.
Professor Diffey and colleagues measured the sun exposure of 180 children
and adolescents during the spring and summer of 1994 and found that only
58 per cent of teenage boys exceeded the weekly dose of sunlight needed
to produce enough vitamin D for the year. Lack of vitamin D can result
in poor bone health. Vitamin D may also reduce the risk of certain cancers
and other diseases.
Although the median time spent outdoors for these adolescents was 1.6
hours per day, Professor Diffey suggests that this may have been insufficient
due to a lack of exposure to direct sunlight. “British children
and adolescents need not deliberately spend extended periods in strong
sunshine. Rather, those whose lives are spent almost entirely indoors,
in the shade, or in vehicles should take the opportunity during casual
everyday activities to walk on the sunny side of the street and, when
possible, avoid taking the car,” concludes Professor Diffey. |
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