Ultraviolet Light and Cancer

Ultraviolet Light And Cancer

The article examines the connection between natural ultraviolet light (UV) radiation and the incidence of cancer in human beings.

The connection between UV radiation and cancer is well known to scientists, and what is debated by public policy advocates is the role of ozone. Some researchers have claimed that Ultraviolet radiation levels are (or were) increasing at an alarming level. They concluded that cancer rates would go up accordingly, unless emissions suspected of reducing the protective effect of atmospheric ozone were banned.

In 1993, J B Kerr and C T McElroy published Evidence for large upward trends of ultraviolet-B radiation linked to ozone depletion(Science 262:1032). This was disputed by P J Michaels et al. (Science 264:1342) but Kerr and McElroy re-affirmed their original findings (Science 264:1342).

Read more about Ultraviolet Light And Cancer:  Ultraviolet Radiation, Types of Ultraviolet Light, Harmful Effects On Skin, Prevention

Famous quotes containing the words ultraviolet, light and/or cancer:

    Like ultraviolet rays memory shows to each man in the book of life a script that invisibly and prophetically glosses the text.
    Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)

    She said, “as the light on the dashboard ran
    Along the bushes at the roadside a man’s face.
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    Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    We “need” cancer because, by the very fact of its incurability, it makes all other diseases, however virulent, not cancer.
    Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. “Under the Sign of Cancer,” Myths and Memories (1986)