The Impact of Weather and Climate on Health in New Zealand Essay

Many people think that is it possible to achieve a “healthy tan,” but this thought has been proven wrong. Overexpose to UV-A and UV-B rays from the sun lead to premature aging of the skin, as well as the possible formation of skin cancer, know as melanoma. An appearance of a tan is actually a stage of burning and damage to the skin. Although a tan may be desirable to many, the fact remains that more people need to be educated on the dangers of the sun’s harmful rays, and the possible health complications of overexposure.

Over the last several years, the total number of skin cancer (melanoma) cases in Australia has been rising dramatically. Evidence of this can be seen with statistics provided by the Cancer Council of Australia. They determined that melanoma is most common form of cancer for individuals between the ages of 15 and 44 years of age. To make matters worse over 1 million people are screened for this disease every single year. This is illustrating how some kind of increased protection is required to protect consumers against the sun's ultra violet rays. ("Skin Cancer Facts and Figures," 2012)

Thesis: Many people do not use sun protection on a daily bases and are unaware of the health effects of sun exposure that can be easily preventive by using sun protection.

The National Skin Cancer Awareness Program represents the new public health approach. This is because it has been created to prevent and reduce the incidence of skin cancer among teenagers and young adults. It takes into account the social determinants that influence a person’s health. For example, due to the sun’s very strong UV rays, Australia is a very hot country and

EXCESSIVE SUN EXPOSURE AND SKIN CANCER IN AUSTRALIA Genet Degfaw Student ID No. 4559316 20 October 2017 Table of content 1. Introduction------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3 2. Background-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3-4 2.1 The importance of sunscreen in preventing skin cancer------------------------------------3 2.2 The Australian population at greater risk of skin cancer------------------------------------4 3.

As many as ninety percent of melanomas are estimated to be caused ultra violet (UV) exposure. This includes UV exposure from artificial sources, such as tanning beds. “Strong evidence now links tanning beds to melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer that afflicts nearly 69,000 Americans a year.”—USA Today. The more one tans and the younger one is your risk for melanoma increases. However, melanoma is increasing faster in women 15-29 years old, than in men the same age. Furthermore, 10,000 people die from melanoma. This is mainly caused because of tanning beds. As a matter of fact, a person dies every fifty minutes from melanoma, the second most common cancer. Tanning beds triple the risk of one getting melanoma. In fact, every time one goes and tans, the risk gets higher and higher. Following this further, more people get melanoma because of tanning beds than developing lung cancer because of

Many teens today use tanning beds, but aren’t aware of how dangerous they really are. Tanning, especially indoor tanning has been linked to Melanoma and other types of skin cancers. A review of scientific evidence estimated that 400,000 cases of skin cancer in the United States is because of tanning bed and 6,000 cases of Melanoma. An increased rate of Melanoma was found in women under the age of 40, which rose a third since the early 1990’s. As time has

Have you ever felt the “false sense of security that [you] may not feel under direct sunlight” from a tanning bed (Jeffrey)? Your body relaxes, you feel serene, and you get a golden glow. Some teens strive for this feeling...and the tan. Tanning is the skin's response to injury, according to Arielle Kauvar, M. D. The exposure of UV rays over time can cause skin cancer. Skin cancer is the growth of abnormal growth of skin cells that forms in the tissue of the skin (Skin Cancer). Melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, can come from UV rays. From 1998- 2008, the number of cases of Melanoma has increased by about

We hypothesize that the time exposed to tanning beds, increases the risk of skin cancer. This hypothesis was a way to understand the statement, tanning beds give more harmful UV radiation rays in the shortest time, then being in the sun for the same amount of time. With this we emphasize that tanning beds are bed.

and a delay of the immune system. On the other hand, the long-term effects are wrinkles,

According to International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (2007) systematic review about sunbeds and melanoma cancer worldwide, “First exposure to sunbeds before 35 years of age significantly increased the risk of melanoma” (1116). Further research strengthens the link between tanning beds and melanoma. Lazovich et al. (2010) studied the diagnosed cases of melanoma in the state of Minnesota between 2004-2007. The age group they studied was 25-59, and asked the study participants about their tanning bed practices (1557). They found out that the odds ratio “for the likelihood of melanoma in relation to having ever tanned indoors was 1.74…Melanoma risk increased markedly with frequency of use” (Lazovich et al., 2010, 1564).

According to Mays and Tercyak (2015), “An estimated 9,000 deaths occur each year as a result of melanoma, and the costs of skin cancer treatment results in $8 billion annually (p. e70). The major concern for preventing skin cancer from resulting is due to indoor tanning salons (Mays & Tercyak, 2015). Most skin cancer cases are associated with indoor tanning salons (Mays & Tercyak, 2015). Young adults seem to know the risk of indoor tanning, but still do not protect themselves from the dangerous behavior (Hemrich et al., 2014). Even when young adults have family diagnosed with skin cancer, they still continue to tan and do not participate in safe skin-care prevention (Hemrich et al., 2014).

2. Melanoma is also more common in people who live in areas with large amounts of UV

Every hour at least one American will die of skin cancer caused by exposure to the sun. These statistics are alarming and most people are unaware that the sunshine that we all love so much is in fact a threat to our health and good looks. It is up to us to educate ourselves and our children on the harmful effects of sun exposure on the human body like premature aging, physical damage to the body, and cancerous diseases.

Infectious diseases are more seen in people living in places with less sun during winter months, we know those as influenza virus or simply cold. The sun in those places is unable to produce vitamin D and that is why we get sick so often. The people that live in the warm places, where the vitamin D is produced all year round, don’t get sick as often (Holick, 2008).