A Contemporary Strategy for Sun Exposure

Human behaviour is a much greater determinant of the risk of skin cancer than ozone depletion and it is likely to prove impossible to look back at the end of this century and be certain what effect ozone depletion had on skin cancer incidence world-wide. Evidence is emerging implicating a low vitamin D status in a range of adverse health conditions, including some internal cancers, and this is leading to a re-appraisal of just what is the balance we need to achieve in terms of our solar UV exposure in order to identify how much exposure is “enough” against a confounding background of environmental, climatic, behavioural and genotype influences. A strategy is proposed for the outdoor exposure of indoor workers living at temperate latitudes that attempts to approach the “optimum” exposure.