| The people who conduct dermatologic research on tanning and ultraviolet light have a different view of tanning than the "pop dermatology" perspective that any tan is bad for you. Instead of promoting the intelligent message that sunburn is the enemy, many uninformed members of the medical profession spread a distorted and alarmist view of the facts. Here's what researchers actually say about moderate sun exposure and tanning:
"We've shown that people who are out all the time actually have a lower risk for melanomas, and that's probably because they do develop tans over time and they do have some protection whereas intermittent exposure-people that, say, go out only on weekends, they don't have time to develop tans and they get short bursts of exposure and they're not protected by a tan and they are probably getting more damage."
Dr. James Gayle, UV Light Scientist
The Lovelace Institutes
"People who have 'healthy tans' in the U.S. have one-third to one-half the incidence of breast cancer and colon cancer. Those diseases nearly vanish as you approach the equator."
Dr. Frank C. Garland, Naval Health Research Center
University of California at San Diego
"The incidence of malignant melanoma in males and females has been rising exponentially as a function of time since the 1930s. And I can assure you that no one has come up with any environmental factor that can explain this. Sunlight, of any wavelength range, has not increased by near this magnitude, and it is very hard to come up with any environmental factor that will explain this. And therefore many people go to what I call the 'default' explanation, that is, to say you can't think of anything else so you say, 'Ah, this is lifestyle.' But that's not proof of anything. You're just saying what it is not...The probability of finding one explanation for an increase that continues at approximately 5 percent a year for something of the order of 60 years or more can not be ascribable to one factor. Otherwise, we would have seen it somehow."
Dr. Richard Setlow, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, New York
"I treat approximately 20 skin cancer patients per day, 300 days a year, so that's like 6,000 a year. In 30 years that's like 180,000 patients. I have yet to see one person with the typical basal or squamous cell carcinoma that can be attributed to a tanning booth. And that's 180,000 to zero,"
- Dr. George Farber, Dermatologist, Farber Clinic,
New Orleans LA
"Blaming the sun for all of the trouble is like a naked man blaming the cold weather for his frostbite."
- Dr. David G. Williams
on the theory that changes in diet in this century have suppressed the skin's ability to fight sun damage. |
