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I once got stuck walking on a board walk behind an elderly man in a g-string european type swimwear in Hawaii. Looking at his extremely wrinkled ass, I quickly

I once got stuck walking on a board walk behind an elderly man in a g-string european type swimwear in Hawaii. Looking at his extremely wrinkled ass, I quickly realized this man was addicted to sun bathing. Coming from a northern part of the world, did not know that was a thing. He looked about 70, formerly a white guy. So perhaps some people can develop some way of dealing with skin damage from the sun. The man needed to be studied by science. His immune system was trained to kill cancer cells daily.

Clewza313 6y ago
Well, it's also survivor bias. Melanoma rates are very high in Australia, which has lots of pasty people of European extraction toiling under some of the most brutal UV indexes on the planet.
- ddeck 6y ago
  Indeed. Australia and New Zealand have the highest incidence rate for melanoma in the world. Ozone depletion plays a role, but interestingly, the Earth is also closer to the Sun during the southern hemisphere summer, resulting is ~7-10% greater solar UV intensity: Australia’s unusually harsh sunshine results mainly from its location in the Southern Hemisphere. The elliptical orbit of the Earth places the Southern Hemisphere closer to the sun during its summer months than the Northern Hemisphere during its summer. This means that the summer sun in Australia is 7 to 10 percent stronger than similar latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Air currents high in the atmosphere sometimes bring ozone-depleted air from Antarctica’s ozone hole to Australia, letting even more UV through. And Australia’s sunny weather and relatively pollution-free air provide little additional protection from harmful UV rays https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/aerosols-over-australia https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/aerosols...
taneq 6y ago
It depends a lot on the UV index. If you're near the hole in the ozone layer you get cancer before you get that tanned.
StavrosK 6y ago
In Greece, we get a lot of tourists (mainly from England, I want to say) who seem addicted to sunbathing. They've been doing it so much that their skin looks like leather, though I can't say how healthy that is, because I guess everyone here looked like that before the invention of sunscreen. Between the risks of melanoma and the risks of not enough vitamin D and who knows what else we need from the sun, I can't say what's worse, but I don't think staying pasty-white and avoiding all sun contact is healthy any more.

Clewza313 6y ago

Well, it's also survivor bias. Melanoma rates are very high in Australia, which has lots of pasty people of European extraction toiling under some of the most brutal UV indexes on the planet.

ddeck 6y ago
Indeed. Australia and New Zealand have the highest incidence rate for melanoma in the world. Ozone depletion plays a role, but interestingly, the Earth is also closer to the Sun during the southern hemisphere summer, resulting is ~7-10% greater solar UV intensity: Australia’s unusually harsh sunshine results mainly from its location in the Southern Hemisphere. The elliptical orbit of the Earth places the Southern Hemisphere closer to the sun during its summer months than the Northern Hemisphere during its summer. This means that the summer sun in Australia is 7 to 10 percent stronger than similar latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Air currents high in the atmosphere sometimes bring ozone-depleted air from Antarctica’s ozone hole to Australia, letting even more UV through. And Australia’s sunny weather and relatively pollution-free air provide little additional protection from harmful UV rays https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/aerosols-over-australia https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/aerosols...

taneq 6y ago

It depends a lot on the UV index. If you're near the hole in the ozone layer you get cancer before you get that tanned.

StavrosK 6y ago

In Greece, we get a lot of tourists (mainly from England, I want to say) who seem addicted to sunbathing. They've been doing it so much that their skin looks like leather, though I can't say how healthy that is, because I guess everyone here looked like that before the invention of sunscreen. Between the risks of melanoma and the risks of not enough vitamin D and who knows what else we need from the sun, I can't say what's worse, but I don't think staying pasty-white and avoiding all sun contact is healthy any more.