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Without sunscreen your skin would begin to itch uncomfortably if it was exposed to too much sunlight. However, by
using a sunscreen, you would not notice when your body has had enough of it because your first line of defence --
sunburn -- has been crippled. This would lead to overexposure of UVA that together with other internal toxins might
cause skin cancer. Under normal conditions (without sunscreen) you would never get too much UVA even if you
were lying in the sun for five hours. Instead, you would burn your skin heavily through overexposure to UVB.
Although sunburn can impair immune functions and damage the skin, there is no proof that it can cause skin cancer.
The above report stated that medical experts know “little about the precise relation between sunburn and skin
cancer.” This includes the fatal type of skin cancer, the malignant melanoma. Despite the enormous amount of
research done on skin cancers, there has been no indication that malignant melanoma has any links with UV
exposure. But what is known for sure is that sunscreen does not only fail to prevent skin cancer but on the contrary
encourages it by amplifying UVA exposure. This makes sunscreens more dangerous than UV light could ever be.
The question remains whether sunscreens that are made to block out both the UVA and UVB radiation could solve
the problem? Research has shown that they don’t prevent skin cancer either. There are more people suffering from
skin cancer today who have no or only very little exposure to sunlight. Those who live mostly outdoors, at high
altitudes, or near the equator, have the lowest incidence of skin cancers. But those who work under artificial lighting
are the most susceptible.
The average American, for example, spends twenty-two hours a day indoors beneath and around artificial light.
During the winter season most of the working population in the cities never even get to see the daylight, except
through windows that reflect UV light. Incandescent light has a narrow band compared to sunlight and is known to
weaken natural immunity (a Russian study showed that workers who are exposed to UV light during working hours
suffer 50% fewer colds than those who are deprived do). A weak immune system cannot properly defend its e l f
against disease, and that includes skin cancer!
Researcher Dr. Helen Shaw and her research team conducted a melanoma study at the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine, and th e Sydney Melanoma Clinic at Sydney Hospital. They found that office workers had
twice the incidence of the deadly cancer as people who work outdoors. The results of the study were published in
1982 by the British medical journal Lancet. Dr. Shaw proved that those who spend most of their time sunbathing
have the lowest risk of developing skin cancer. By contrast, office workers who were exposed to fluorescent light
during most of their working days had the highest risk of developing melanomas. She also discovered that
fluorescent lights cause mutations in cultures of animal cells.
Dr. Shaw’s research lead to the conclusion that both in Australia and Great Britain, melanoma rates were high
among professional and office workers, and low in people working outdoors. In other words, the Australians and
British would be better off spending more time outside where there is plenty of UV light! Similar controlled studies
were conducted at the New York University School of Medicine, which confirmed and substantiated Dr. Shaw’s
research results."