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Letters to the Editor
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Skin cancer
Moderate sunbathing would seem to be healthy
From Mr J. B. Paige, MRPharmS
The debate on the risk/benefit
ratio of exposure to sunlight, reported
in the PJ of 12 November (p613) fascinated me. For years I have wondered
if the standard advice to avoid exposure to sunlight as much as possible
might be misguided.
Our view of attractiveness in others often seems to be based on an instinctive
measure of health and fitness. Most people would agree that a person
with no tan looks unhealthy, someone with a partial tan looks well and
the person who has tanned to the limit or has been burned by the sun
looks unattractive. Instinct seems to tell us that it is healthy to have
some exposure to tanning UV radiation but unhealthy to have too little
or too much.
If exposure to UV radiation were harmful to health it would be difficult
to explain why Homo sapiens evolved pale skin as the species migrated
away from the tropics. Pale skin allows greater absorption of UV light
and it seems unlikely that such rapid evolution of paler skin could be
accounted for solely by a reduced risk of rickets. That skin colour should
correlate so closely to latitude and to recent sun exposure appears to
indicate that the human body needs a fairly precise dose of UV exposure
to thrive.
Northern Europeans cover themselves with clothes and spend most of their
time out of the sunlight. As a result their UV exposure is far lower
than that for which their skin has evolved. Moderate sunbathing would
therefore seem to be healthy, if not essential.
J. Barrie Paige
Guernsey,
Channel Islands
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal