![]() ![]() In 2003, a landmark eight-year study of 106,379 Scandinavian women published in the (American) Journal of the National Cancer Institute by an international team linked melanoma to sunburns (not tanning), blonde or red hair, and numbers of moles on the legs. too-in darker populations, many of them recent migrants from equatorial zones.ĬATCHING SOME RAYS: On August 12, 2013, during the Australian winter, the Australian SunSmart Facebook page posted this photo of a white man basking in the sun.Īt the same time, new research on who gets melanoma and why began changing beliefs about the sun. Called rickets in babies and children, the bone-deforming illness not seen since Victorian times began cropping up from Britain to Australia-and the U.S. Vitamin D deficiencies leach calcium from muscles and bones, causing pain, weakness, fractures, osteoporosis, and osteomalacia. 1 The need for sun especially affects darkly colored people since the skin pigment melanin, which protects against damaging ultraviolet solar radiation, also slows vitamin D production. By the early 2000s, research began to suggest a link between vitamin D and lower disease rates for cancers including breast, prostate, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, along with autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The move follows a new understanding of skin cancer and vitamin D. That’s more than double America’s rate.īut the melanoma capital of the world is welcoming back the sun after a half-century on the outs. Obituaries for young people are a regular feature of Australian newspapers-melanoma will afflict 1 in 18 Australians before they reach age 85. Though also mostly curable if caught early-but deadly if not-malignant melanoma often morphs from moles or even a small dot, then metastasizes to other organs, like the lung and brain. The scabby, pearly, rough-edged bumps, indents, and patches are rarely deadly if treated in a timely manner. Today, some 70 percent of Australians will develop skin cancer, including basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas-the less dangerous variety of skin lesions that mostly appear on sun-exposed body parts such as the face, neck, and hands. People regularly exposed to daily sun have a lower risk of getting melanoma and also have a higher survival rate if they do. It is a harsh fit for the pale, blonde and redheaded English, Irish, and Welsh immigrants and their descendants who settled on this continent far from the penumbra of their ancestral lands. The southern hemisphere tilts toward the sun in Australian summer, so the sun beats down more directly below the equator than above. The slogan promoted by Sid the Seagull-Australia’s equivalent of Smokey the Bear-was created to battle skyrocketing skin cancer. Launched in 1980, it advised Australians to slip on a shirt, slop on the sunscreen, and slap on a hat. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience.Īustralia has the highest melanoma rate on Earth, which motivated the nation’s famed Slip! Slop! Slap! campaign.
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