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‘If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it’
Author(s) -
Eglin Clare M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
experimental physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.925
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1469-445X
pISSN - 0958-0670
DOI - 10.1113/ep087794
Subject(s) - population , ozone layer , skin cancer , climate change , environmental science , medicine , toxicology , physiology , environmental health , meteorology , biology , ecology , geography , ozone , cancer
With global warming being a ‘hot topic’, the lyrics of Baz Luhrmann’s song [Everybody’s free (to wear sunscreen)] are pertinent. Climatic change will have a deleterious effect on humans as a consequence of increased prevalence of natural disasters, famine and heat waves. Currently, nearly one-third of the world’s population is regularly exposed to climatic conditions of elevated surface air temperature and/or humidity that exceed human thermoregulatory capacity, a trend that is set to increase (Mora, Counsell, Bielecki, & Louis, 2017). Elderly individuals are at greatest risk for mortality and morbidity during heat waves, partly owing to their reduced vasodilatory and sweating capacity in response to heating. One of the other potential consequences of climatic change is an increased exposure to solar radiation. Stratospheric ozone decreases the amount of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) reaching the Earth, and thus depletion of the ozone potentially increases exposure to UVR. Exposure to UVR is also dependent on human behaviour. One of the behavioural thermoregulatory responses to heat is a reduction in the amount of clothing worn to enhance evaporative and convective heat loss from the skin. In addition, an increase in leisure time combinedwith the promotion of regular exercise in green environments to improve physical andmental health may all result in an increased exposure of the skin to UVR. Exposure to UVR can cause skin reddening (erythema), cutaneous vasodilatation, immunosuppression, oxidative stress, photo-ageing and skin cancer, which can be attenuated by the use of sunscreen. Conversely, UVR is important for vitamin D synthesis, and exposure to UVA radiation can decrease diastolic blood pressure (Liu et al., 2014). Indeed, the seasonal changes in blood pressure and cardiovascular mortality at latitudes between 40 and 60◦ North of the equator, are correlated with the seasonal variation in UVA exposure (Liu et al., 2014). In this issue of Experimental Physiology, Wolf et al. (2019) report the time course of skin erythema and increased cutaneous blood flow