Imogen Calderwood
EVEN Factor 50 sun cream can’t ‘guarantee’ to keep you safe from skin cancer, according to a shocking new study conducted in Spain.
Berta Lopez Sanchez-Laorden, co-author of the study, said that while creams can protect against immediate damage – such as sunburn – radiation can still damage skin cells.
It’s a slap in the face for sun cream manufacturers whose profits have been riding high since the iconic Slip-Slap-Slop sun protection campaign of the 1980s.
The study – carried out at Elche’s Miguel Hernandez University – controversially used mice that had been genetically modified to make them susceptible to melanomas.
It’s all a consumer’s nightmare. I’ll just use my cream, enjoy the outdoors, and take my risks. Beats hiding in the house all day.
It may not stop you getting cancer but it certainly helps stop you burning which is one of the things that can lead to cancer developing in later years. If you were burned many years ago for not using sunscreen you are more likely to develop skin cancer than someone who’s never been burned and used sunscreen all their lives.
I have to wear sunscreen as I burn easily and I’d rather wear it and protect my skin than not wear it. If people were more sun aware and took care to drink plenty of water (no alcohol during the heat of the day), to cover up and keep in the shade between 11am and 3pm when the sun is at its hottest then skin cancer wouldn’t be as prevalent as its becoming.
or behave like the Spanish and only go out later in the day between 4pm – sundown
skin is your largest organ and suncream is absorbed by the skin into the blood stream. Given the ingredients you certainly would´t want to eat it, but many people use it without giving a thought to what they are putting in their bodies. You miss out on vit D which is actually a hormone that the body can’t produce. A half an hour without cream at a later time in the day and then cream is semi healthier.
Cases of rickets are way higher in children in the UK after that 1980´s campaign and also breast cancer and skin cancer. Well we all believed it at the time.
Good post Paco,
I can remember a time when no Spanish woman wanted a tan, it meant she was a campesina and would be looked down on. At the same time no Spanish man would use sunscreen – bad for the macho image,they just burned, crazy but true.
The fact is that those who work out in the sun naturally get a good tan. I can remember when only the young construction workers wore shorts and boots and coated up with sunscreen before starting work, I don’t know of any construction worker getting skin cancer later in life. Our tans always were superior to desk jockeys or factory fodder and the girls definately preferred those with the best tan.
The danger of skin cancer is for those idiots who lay like beached sardines. I must admit to being an idiot when walking up to the summit of Mulhacen wearing shorts and a vest, whilst the Spanish made sure that only their face and hands were unprotected. Coming down it was like fried eggs cooking on my upper arms – really, really stupid and something I never did again.
Now that big holes have appeared in the earth’s atmosphere over New Zealand and Australia sunbathing there has become especially dangerous.
I agree Stuart don´t lie down or stay in one position for too long.
Watch your children running around they create their own shade.
Be active, play paddle, swim, stand up, go for walks, wear sunglasses don’t fall asleep and remember the sun is not the devil. You would be dead without it.
Paco,
an excellent follow up to your first post.