The WHO reports that the Sun kills as many as 60,000:
As many as 60,000 people a year die from too much sun, mostly from malignant skin cancer, the World Health Organization has reported.
It found that 48,000 deaths every year are caused by malignant melanomas, and 12,000 by other kinds of skin cancer. About 90 percent of such cancers are caused by ultraviolet light from the sun.
Radiation from the sun also causes often serious sunburn, skin aging, eye cataracts, pterygium -- a fleshy growth on the surface of the eye, cold sores and other ills, according to the report, the first to detail the global effects of sun exposure.
"We all need some sun, but too much sun can be dangerous -- and even deadly. Fortunately, diseases from UV such as malignant melanomas, other skin cancers and cataracts are almost entirely preventable through simple protective measures," Dr. Maria Neira, Director for Public Health and the Environment at WHO, said in a statement.
I say we must stand up to this relentless atrocity that is the Sun. We must draw a line in the sand and say "No more death from you!"
I also think that we should take steps to prevent this craven killing, possibly including blocking out the Sun like that episode of the Simpsons (Who Shot Mr. Burns?).
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It should be noted that vitamin D deficiency has reached epidemic proportions, in part because of the panic around skin cancer. It also seems that vitamin D protects against skin cancer, hence many of those dying get short, sudden exposure to the sun (such as during vacation on the beach).
Vitamin D is also involved in many other functions, and researchers are finding new ways it can prevent other disease.
Have you even heard of, say, an athlete (who is in the sun daily) getting skin cancer? Or a farmer? No, it generally happens to those who are not often in the sun but then get sun "overdoses". I find it very irresponsible that in order to prevent one problem (skin cancer; and that's 60,000 people out of 6 BILLION), health authorities are creating more serious problems. One study in (I think) Boston showed that some 95% of people admitted to a hospital emergency room were vitamin D deficient...
I've been warning people about that unshielded and unregulated fusion reactor in the sky for year. But nobody takes the threat seriously. But there is something you can do, go sign the online petition to destory the sun! =)
http://www.petitiononline.com/NOSUN/petition.html
Mattison
AgnosticOracle.LiveJournal.com
Actually as an Australian originally from the country,
I know farmers get skin cancer all the time.
Australia, lots of sun, lots of white-skinned folks,
highest skin cancer rates in the world.
Is 1,400 deaths from skin cancer in Australia, out of a population of 20 million, a lot?
http://www.cancer.org.au/content.cfm?randid=502435
How many of these are farmers?
Kirk
Looking at the full quote from the site:
Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, with around 374,000 Australians treated for a non-melanoma (non-life threatening) skin cancer and more than 8,800 are diagnosed with a melanoma each year. Over 1400 Australians die from melanoma or non-melanoma skin cancer each year.
So that means that roughly 1 in 55 Australians get some form of skin cancer each year, I'd call that high
http://www.medscape.com/resource/skincancer indicates that the USA rate is more than 1.3 million cases per year.
So based on 20 million in Australia and 296 million in the USA, if the USA had the same rate of skin cancer, then we would be looking at 5.6 million cases. So the rate of skin cancer in Australia is over 4 times higher than in the USA, which seems high to me, but them's the numbers.
As far as farmers go, I know personally of two farmers who have got skin cancer. In the following reference they state:
epidemiological studies have indicated that farmers are a high risk group for skin cancer because of the long hours that they spend outdoors during peak UV times. (4) Unpublished data specific to the Gippsland area showed that the age-standardised incidence of melanoma among males in Gippsland during 2000-2002 was 35.9 per 100,000, significantly higher than the Victorian average for that three year period of 28.3 per 100,000 (5)
http://www.cancervic.org.au/cbrc-papers/rps18-2005.pdf
The sources of data for (4) and (5) are in the reference list of the paper.
In terms of athletes, in Australia, the summer sport is cricket, the following reference indicates that skin cancer rates amongst cricketers is very high:
http://www.scu.edu.au/news/media.php?item_id=315&action=show_item&type=M
But to some extent you are right according to the advertising campaigns we get in Australia, where they emphasise that getting sunburnt is worse than just being
exposed to the sun. But it's also clear that long-term exposure to UV is in itself a problem and promotes skin cancer.
As far as Vitamin D deficiency goes, it is acknowledged as a problem here in Australia, especially for children as we have extensive programs about keeping out of the sun. Recently they have talked about this, but the levels of exposure needed to solve this are very low as this quote indicates
Professor Rebecca Mason, an expert on vitamin D and calcium metabolism and Professor of Physiology at the University of Sydney, says the recommended levels of sunlight exposure won't put anyone at risk of skin cancer.
Those levels are: in summer, six to eight minutes a day on most days. In winter, it should be half an hour most days. You need to have only 15 per cent of your body exposed - arms, hands and face - to get this exposure.
She agrees that most people will already get this amount. But those people in the at-risk group should make sure they get at least this amount. People with dark skin may need more.
from http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/s1408741.htm
Also see this reference
http://www.cancer.org.au/documents/Risks_Benefits_Sun_Exposure_MAR05.pdf
As a very fair-skinned Australian, who regularly got burnt every summer of his childhood, often multiple times, I listen carefully to this type of material, regularly get checked by my doctor and avoid both exposure and sunburn, it's the only sensible thing to do.