Sunlight
Skin Cancer and Sunlight Exposure
Humans have been living on Earth since at least four million years ago, and the sun has been shining for about four point six billion years and it’s been shining towards Earth for most of that time. But strangely enough no animal has ever contracted skin cancer because of being in the sun all day except humans, who by the way rarely did until about some fifty years ago. The significant increase in skin cancer cases realted to sun exposure may be due to global warming and the hole that has been made in the ozone layer that protects. The ozone layer is thinning rapidly, more in some areas than others, but mostly in the South Pole during the fall and winter seasons and there is some minor but important thinning in the northern hemisphere. The ozone layer that protects planet earth, wich is about ten kilometers high, acts as a shield in preventing dangerous radiations from the sun and from outer space to reach the biosphere we live in, however and interesting fact is that the coincidence on forms of skin cancer are higher in people who live in and around the tropics where there is virtually no thinning of the ozone layer, so the mistery prevails.
An interesting fact to note is that the industrial chemical sunscreen we commonly know was introduced in the late nineteen twenties and by the mid thirties the first commercially available sunscreen product was being sold by the L’Oreal brand.Monsanto also began to produce artificial chemicals for use in blocking UVA and UVB rays from the sun.
In the world we live in there are an estimated two hundred and fifty different species of bacteria which reside on the human skin. Sebum secreted by the sebaceous glands in our skin is an oily substance that is composed of free fatty acids, wax monoesters, triglycerides and squalene wich are there for a reason.
The bacteria mentioned before and the oily substances we secrete actually help protect the skin but we seem to have come up with endless ways to destroy this natural protective barrier. Chemicals not only strip the skin of its natural protection, they are absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream where they continue to cause damage.
We have a tendency to destroy this protective barrier. We slather our skin with many toxics most of which gets absorbed into our bloodstream. There are over one hundred and fifty cancer causing chemicals currently used in the cosmetics industry, and although federal law requires products containing these ingredients to carry a warning label no one enforces this law.
Sunscreen ingredients absorb into the blood, and most are linked to toxic effects. Some release skin damaging free radicals, some disrupt hormone systems and several are strongly linked to allergic reactions. Be careful what products you use and always read the labes to be sure you are getting the best there is.