Are we really dying for a tan?

BMJ 1999;319:114-116 ( 10 July )

Education and debate

Are we really dying for a tan?

Andrew R Ness, senior lecturer in epidemiology, Stephen J Frankel, professor of epidemiology and public health medicine, David J Gunnell, senior lecturer in epidemiology, George Davey Smith, professor of clinical epidemiology.

University of Bristol, Department of Social Medicine, Bristol BS6 7DP

Correspondence to: Dr Ness Andy.Ness@bris.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Professionals in health care and health promotion have embraced the notion that sunlight (particularly in doses that leadto sunburn) is bad for health.^1-3 This was not always the case.In the early years of this century sunlight was regarded as aneffective treatment for tuberculosis of the skin, and was alsothought to be generally beneficial to health (box). Even todaythere are health resorts around the world offering heliotherapy $---$ particularlyfor diseases of the skin such as psoriasis. The public have beenslow to accept the message that exposure to sunlight is bad forhealth. Many people still sunbathe. In a survey carried out inEngland in 1995, 40% of those aged 16-24 reported being sunburntin the preceding year, and just under 40% regarded a tan as beingimportant to them.⁴ Furthermore, qualitative research withpeople in Scotland aged 20-35 who regularly travelled abroad forpleasure, suggested that at least . . . [Full text of this article]

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