|
The people who actually conduct dermatological research on tanning and ultraviolet light have a different view of tanning. It differs from 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. That's probably because they do develop tans over time. They do have some protection whereas intermittent exposure-people that go out only on weekends don't have time to develop tans. They get short bursts of exposure. They're not protected by a tan and 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
***
"Since some exposure to sunlight is beneficial to your health, it is reasonable that if you wish to be exposed to sunlight, you can do so with relative safety - if you make sure that you do not receive a sunburn."
- Dr. Michael F. Holick
Research Dermatologist and Photobiologist
Boston University School of Medicine
***
"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. It is very hard to come up with any environmental factor that will explain this. Therefore many people go to what I call the 'default' explanation. This 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 cannot be ascribable to one factor. Otherwise, we would have seen it somehow."
- Dr. Richard Setlow
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Upton, New York
***
"I was asked to speak on the relationship of UVA to malignant melanoma. It is really using a very opaque crystal ball because whatever evidence we have is even worse than the evidence that exists that sunlight has something to do with melanoma."
- Dr. Frederick Urbach
Temple University photobiologist
and research dermatologist
***
"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.
| 
