Question:
Your body has a built in mechanism of telling you when you have too much
sun. i.e. tan and burns. Now when people cover their outer epidermal layer
with a protective coating that stops the burn, the warning sign never
appears. Furthermore, the rays still affect the inner layers of the skin
where the cancer develops. Hence by placing suntan lotion on the skin we
only stop the warning signs and keep ourself heading right down the road
and over the cliff in a sense. Facts to support this? I can think of one.
Skin cancer has increased dramatically, but suntan lotions have been
around now awhile and are widely used. Way back when suntan lotions
weren't around, people had sense to go inside when they had enough.
Comments on this reverse hypothesis?
Answer:
Are you saying that wearing sunscreen makes people stay in the sun for more
time or are you saying that sunscreen makes skin not produce the protective
mechanisms that it normally would (melanin?)?
If you want to use you facts (i.e. skin cancer has increased and so has use of
suntan lotions) you'll need to show that a) people aren't spending more time in
the sun now, or exposing more of their skin b) that skin cancer really has
increased (not just reporting of skin cancer or diagnosis) c)that enough people
are using suntan lotions to make a difference. d) overall, that suntan lotion
and skin cancer aren't just correlated but causally linked.
How about full spectrum sunscreens (parsol, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide)?
They prevent the UVs that go into the
inner layers? Maybe we should simply switch to only using these.
