Question:
Are the skin cancer rates the same?
Answer:
That would be a function of several things, including ethnicity of the
population (e.g., more British settlers, percentage-wise, in Oz than in
So Cal, hence more prone to skin cancer), amount of time spent outdoors
and on the beaches, and early detection rates.
(It is not the case that the more northerly the more sensitive to skin
cancer. Scandinavians, for example, are far north of Ireland and the
British Isles, but tan easily and darkly--a la the Swedish Bikini
Team--compared to the Irish, Scottish, and English. The reason is cloud
cover, and who adapted to it. Fair skin, freckles, and tendency toward
inability to tan are associated with cloud-covered areas.)
BTW, the "hole in the ozone layer" over Antarctica has NOT spread to
Australia. It may, even within our lifetimes, but right now the UV
Index in Sydney (34S) is just about precisely what it is in LA (34N). A
bunch of cities are much higher, including Rio de Janeiro, Havana, etc.
This site reports measured UV indices for each month, in various cities:
Claims that UV is stronger in Australia are not borne out.
