How prevalent is sun damage?
According to the Skin Cancer foundation one in six Americans will develope skin cancer at some point in their life. The number of skin cancer cases has increased nearly 4% annually and seven hundred thousand new cases of skin cancer were diagnosed last year. 80% of these develop slowly affecting the lower layers of the skin, spread rarely and are nearly 100% curable. Some 130,000 skin cancers which grow faster, affect the upper layers of the skin and although they are highly treatable resulted in 2,300 deaths last year. Malignant melanoma which is the most unforgiving skin cancer,attacking the pigment producing cells, resulted in 7,000 deaths last year-twice as many as in 1980. How much protection do sunscreens provide? The power of a sunscreen can be calculated very simply although you would think it should be more straightforward than it is. Take 100 divide it by the SPF (sunscreen protection factor) and subtract the answer from 100. Example: Using a sunscreen with a SPF rating of 15
