Health
The importance of the use of products and devices that promote shading has been growing massively in all countries of the world. Here in Brazil it could not be different, especially because it is a country with high solar incidence. To all that it is added the increase of information and of awareness of the need protection against skin cancer, the most lethal all over the world.
Skin cancer is the abnormal and uncontrolled growth of cells composing the skin. These cells are arranged forming layers, and depending on the affected layer we will have the different types of cancer. The most common are the basocell and spinocell carcinomas; the most dangerous is the melanoma.
The ultraviolet radiation is the main responsible for cancer development and skin ageing. It is concentrated in artificial tanning cabins and in sunrays.
The basocell carcinoma is the most frequent type, and represents 70% of cases. It is more common after the age of 40, in light-skinned persons. Its appearance is directly linked to the cumulative solar exposure during the life. Although it does not cause metastases, it can destroy the tissues around it, reaching even cartilages and bones.
The spinocell carcinoma, on its turn, is the second most common type of skin cancer, and can disseminate through ganglia and provoke metastases. Among its causes there is prolonged sun exposure, especially without adequate protection, smoking, exposure to chemical substances such as arsenic and tar, and immunity alterations.
The melanoma is most dangerous type, with high potential of producing metastases. It can lead to death if there is not any early diagnostics and treatment. It is more frequent in light and sensitive-skin persons. Normally, it starts with a dark spot.
For Brazilians, a tanned skin is synonym of beauty and health. However, specialists of the Brazilian Society of Dermatology (SBD) warn: inadequate sun exposure can bring innumerous harms for the skin, besides being responsible for the cancer with the highest incidence in Brazil - skin cancer. The latest estimates by the National Institute of Cancer (INCA), in 2006, forecast 122,400 new cases of the illness. Concerned with these alarming figures, the Brazilian Society of Dermatology created in 1999 the National Skin Cancer Control Program (PNCCP).
Source: Sociedade Brasileira de Dermatologia.
http://www.sbd.org.br/publico/cancer/index.aspx
The country will have over 460 thousand new cases next year
The 2008 Estimate of Cancer Incidence in Brazil reveals that approximately 470 thousand new cases of the illness must occur in the country in 2008 and 2009. The most incident type will be the non-melanoma skin cancer, with 115,010 cases each year. Then, there are: prostate cancer (49,530 new cases), breast (49,400), lung (27,270), colon and rectum (26,990), stomach (21,800) and uterus colon (18,680). The announcement was made by the National Institute of Cancer (INCA), in Rio de Janeiro, during the 2nd Cancer Control International Congress (ICCC 2007/INCA), held from November 25th to 28th, highlighting the Cancer Combat National Day (November 27th).
"INCA has been preparing the cancer estimates in Brazil since 1995, with the purpose of guiding public administrators in cancer control and prevention actions”, stated the INCA director, Luiz Antônio Santini. “The dimension of the illness incidence in the country, which is projected in the estimates, evidences how cancer needs to be faced, definitively, as a public health problem. It is exactly this international effort that we will be making at ICCC 2007”. Since 2005, the estimates disclosure became biannual. According to Santini, early prevention and detection still are the most important ways of cancer control. “At least one third of the new cancer cases occurring in the world every year could be avoided”, he said.
Source: INCA - Instituto Nacional de Câncer
http://www.inca.gov.br/conteudo_view.asp?id=1793
Solar Radiation
Excessive Exposure
In Brazil, the most frequent cancer is skin cancer, corresponding to about 25% of all tumors diagnosed in all geographic reasons. The natural ultraviolet radiation, coming from the Sun, is its highest etiologic agent.
According to wave length, the ultraviolet rays (UV rays) are classed in UV-C rays, UV-A rays (320-400 nm) and UV-B rays (280-320 nm). Due to the ozone layer destruction, the UV-B rays, which are closely related to skin cancer appearance, have progressively had their incidence increased on Earth. Likewise, it an increase in the incidence of UV-C rays has been occurring, which are potentially more carcinogenic than the UV-B.
On their turn, the UV-A rays independ on this layer and cause skin cancer on whoever exposes to them at high-incidence times, continuously and along many years. Light-skinned persons living in places of high incidence of solar light are those subject to the highest risk. As over 50% of the Brazilian population have light skin and expose quite a lot and carelessly to the Sun, either at work or on leisure, the country is geographically located in a zone of high incidence of ultraviolet rays, nothing could be more predictable and explainable than the high incidence of skin cancer among us.
How to protect
The persons who expose to the Sun in a prolonged and frequent way, during professional and leisure activities, constitute the group of highest risk of contracting skin cancer today, especially the light-skinned persons.
Under normal circumstances, children expose annually to the Sun three times more than adults. Researches indicate that cumulative and excessive exposure during the first 10 to 20 years of life significantly increase skin cancer risk, showing that childhood is a particularly vulnerable phase to the noxious effects of the Sun.
The tropical weather, the large number of beaches, the idea of beauty associated to tanning, especially among youths, and rural work, favor excessive exposure to solar radiation.
For the prevention not only of skin cancer but of other lesions provoked by UV rays as well, it is necessary to avoid unprotected Sun exposure. It is necessary to incentive the use of hats, sunshades, sunglasses and solar filters during any open-air activity, and to avoid exposure at times when the ultraviolet rays are more intense, that is, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
High altitudes require extra care. At every 300 meters of altitude, the intensity of the redness caused by ultraviolet light on the skin increases 4%. Snow, white sand and white-painted surfaces reflect sunrays. Therefore, under these conditions care should be doubled.
Considering that damages caused by solar exposure abuse are cumulative, it is important that special care be taken since the earliest childhood.
Source: INCA-Istituto Nacional de Câncer
http://www.inca.gov.br/conteudo_view.asp?ID=21