A recent sunscreen ad by Neutrogena Sunscreen features a young woman with the caption, 'My sister accidentally killed herself. She died of Skin Cancer'. The message is clear: Those who die of the disease only have themselves to blame.But that statement is generating some controversy from Skin Cancer specialists for a number of reasons, according to this article. Firstly, despite everything we hear about covering up, it's not a proven fact that sunscreen prevents melanoma, but it is thought that it protects against less deadly forms of skin cancer. Secondly, tests show that people who've had more sun exposure have a better chance of survival against melanoma than those who stayed out of the sun. And while the ad is meant to evoke fear by claiming that skin cancer is the most common cancer, it doesn't mention that skin cancer only accounts for 2% of cancer deaths and almost all of these are from Melanoma.
Still, I think protecting yourself against the sun is ultimately important, and that message is clear from the ad.
1. You are correct that sunscreen sold in the U.S. through 2006 did not protect against melanoma since it did not block UVA effectively. However, it did block UVB and vitamin D production. UVB and vitamin D have been found to reduce the risk of about 20 types of cancer. To see for yourself, just go to http://www3.cancer.gov/atlasplus/ and look at the maps of cancer mortality rates, then go to http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/ery_uv/dna_exp.gif and look at map for UVB in July. Harvard University has estimated that male cancer deaths in the U.S. could be reduced by 29% if everyone had the equivalent of 1500 IU of vitamin D3 per day. Given that there are expected to be 560,000 cancer deaths this year with only 8110 from melanoma and 2740 from non-melanoma skin cancer, don't you think the concern about over exposure to solar UV misses the point?
Posted at 10:59AM on Jul 26th 2007 by William Grant