Sun protectionMore and more younger people are beginning to get skin cancer probably as a result of not using adequate protection while going on more frequent sun holidays, an expert on sun care has warned.
Mike Brown, a scientific adviser with UK-based pharmacy group, Boots, said that despite all the warnings about the dangers of unprotected exposure to the sun, skin cancer figures were still increasing. Ireland has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in Europe with more than 5,500 new cases diagnosed every year.
"We are seeing a lot more skin cancer in a younger generation. Normally it can take 30 to 40 years to develop, but more and more it seems to be developing at a younger age," he said during a visit to Dublin last week.
He attributed this to the "bronzing phenomenon" - when it became fashionable to have a tan - and the recent widespread availability of relatively affordable sun holidays. He said foreign sun holidays seemed to be "speeding up the skin damage".
Brown, whose work involves trying to develop more effective sunscreens, said a problem seemed to be that people expected to get a sun tan when they went abroad. "There really seems to be a belief that if you go to Spain you will get a tan even if you don't at home," he said.
The strict medical advice is that any tan is in fact damage and that the only completely safe tan is a fake one. Brown said a difficulty in arguing the case for sun protection was that you were warning about risks in the future and many people didn't want to think so far ahead.
"In selling sun protection products what we are really selling is a long-term insurance policy, but it is very hard to convince a 25-year-old that it will benefit them 20 years later."
However, the inevitability of skin damage does catch up with people and even if they don't get cancer, their appearance will certainly suffer. "I've spent years explaining to a friend of mine, who always had a tan, that the sun would cause her skin to wrinkle. And it's true that up until a few years ago she looked great, but then in her mid-40s it all began to fall apart - she looked more like a woman in her 60s," he said.
Boots will be supporting the Irish Cancer Society's 2005 Sun Smart campaign. People are urged to avoid being in the sun when rays are strongest - 11am to 3pm; to wear T-shirts, long shorts, sun hats and sun glasses; to use a total sunblock on children; and to use a sunscreen product of at least sun protection factor (SPF) 15, which should be applied 20 minutes before going into the sun and reapplied at least every two hours, or more often if swimming.
Brown stressed, however, that an SPF of 15 was recommended for normal skin, but that people with what is known as skin type 1 - fair, freckly skin with blue or green eyes and fair or auburn hair would need an SPF of 25. The factor used also depends on where you are - "In Florida, if you used factor 15 and you were out all day you would certainly burn," he said.
For people who choose not to follow the strict medical advice to avoid any tan at all, it is then a choice about how much risk you want to take. For example using a factor 15 would allow people to get a light tan.
"What is very difficult to say is what exact level of exposure is safe - even dermatologists can't tell you that. It might be that a light tan is OK, but it might not. We certainly know that getting a dark tan is not safe and that the less you tan, the less damage you do to your skin.
"In getting a tan, even a light one, people are taking a conscious decision to do some damage," he said.
Brown, who has worked on developing sun products for more than 19 years, was in Ireland to promote a new range of facial sunscreens, Soltan Facial, which contains a recently-developed material called Optisol.
This is a milder form of titanium dioxide than has previously been used in sunscreens and is a new material developed by a company affiliated to Oxford University.
It is included in all of Boots' facial sun care products this year.
Brown said it had been shown the Optisol offered better protection, was milder on the skin and also reduced the formation of "free radicals", high energy molecules produced in the skin which cause further damage and ageing.