Hot weather, dangerous sun

July 27th, 2006

I wrote a few days ago about how hot it is in the UK at the moment.

Don’t think I’m complaining, as I’m not. Far from it actually as I quite like the good weather day in day out. We poor Brits aren’t used to it as our summers are usually rain, a bit of sun to remind us that it really is summer, then more rain again.

Nice though all this hot weather is, there is a serious downside. Apparently the sun kills 60,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organisation.

According to that report, these deaths are caused by various skin cancers, though it fails to mention the thousands of deaths that resulted in France from the heat wave in 2003, which were mostly caused by heat stroke and dehydration.

I spent three months in Australia about ten years ago, just as the Australians were starting to become concerned about the numbers of people who were contracting skin cancer from too much exposure to the sun.

I was shocked by the appearances of some youngsters there, whose skins were looking many years older than their actual years. Excessive exposure to the sun had prematurely aged their skins and wrinkles were starting to appear. It was noticeable, however, that people were making an effort to avoid too much sun exposure and the sun block costumes were becoming very popular on the beaches, particlularly for children.

Here in the UK, this summer, we are seeing people who have become very tanned, and many who have been badly sunburnt. If we start to have a run of hot summers like this, then even we Brits need to start paying heed to the dangers of the sun and make sure that we don’t add to those world wide statistics.

Entry Filed under: Healthy Lifestyles