Medicetics

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“The Health of the Nation” skin cancer target remains beyond reach

In 1992 the UK government strategic document “The Health of the Nation” listed numerous targets to improve health. In this document there was only one skin related target and that was to “halt the year on year increase in skin cancer by the year 2005″.
Recently the government has published the statistics covering 1992-2005, the figures coming from the national Cancer Registration and they are not good.

Between 1992 and 2005 the number of recorded cases of Malignant Melanoma skin cancer (which is the deadliest form of skin cancer and normally makes up about 10% of all skin cancers) went from 4151 in 1992 to 8025 in 2005 a 93% increase in cases.
Other non-melanoma skin cancers went from 38,745 to 67,068 in 2005 an increase of 73%.
Although these are the recorded official estimates, after a study carried out in Wales it is thought that the actual figures may be 60% higher than the official stats.
What else has the study told us:
It appears that that childhood sunburn and recreational UV radiation is a critical element of BCC skin cancer risk. Strict sunscreen use has been shown in Australia to reduce the SCC (squamous cell cancer) risk by 40% in 4.5 years.

Despite all of this and the acknowledged poor levels of education in the UK with regards to using sunscreens properly. We still get a number of prominent publications talking about the “danger of wearing sunscreen too often” with regards to vitamin D levels and that the link between sunscreen and skin cancer is over-estimated!!

Both of the above statements are really incredibly unhelpful to health professionals who are constantly trying to educate our patients to be more responsible. Australia have already published very clear data that shows strict sunscreen use can cut skin cancer rates by 40% in less than half a decade and we are wondering why are skin cancer rates are taking off??

Dr Geoffrey Mullan

Medicetics have a wide range of sunscreens for kids/ adults/ sports etc. We have tried to find the best sunscreens available as well as a selection of sunscreens for kids.