SKIN CANCER RISKS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 23, 27 January 1934, Page 7

SKIN CANCER RISKS

EFFECT OF “SUN-BAKING” WARNING to fair people. (DISCUSSION IN AUSTRALIA. Some interest has been aroused, especially among frequenters of the beaches, by remarks made regarding the dangers of sun-baking made at the recent session in Hobart of the Australia!- Medical Congress. The president of the congress, Dr. Lines, and the Commonwealth DirectorGeneral of Health both referred to the large numbers of cases of rodent ulcers and skin cancer in Australia. It was stated that frequent sun-baking by persons who burned, rather than browned were particularly susceptible to skin cancer. Similar remarks were made at

the Cancer Conference held in Canberra last year. A Sydney skin specialist confirmed the statements made by Dr. Lines and Dr. Cumpstan. He said that the blonde who did not brown and who persisted in sun-baking could expect to develop rodent ulcers and skin cancer. “There are hundreds of thousands of sufferers from skin cancer in Australia,” he said. “They include the disappointed ‘mermaids’ whose rashness, at least, can only bring freckles.” First symptoms of the skin cancer that can become very serious, it was stated, is the appearance of a scaly formation on the skin, which gradually grows toward ulceration. It is curable by treatment with radium—if caught in time. Usually the condition of the skin compels early attention, and for thaf reason few persons become incurable, says a Sydney specialist. The disfiguring disease, of course, is not wholly the outcome of excesses in sun-baking. Usually the scales appear on the hands and upper part of the face, and a large percentage of victims are women gardeners.

Rarely docs the cancer appear on the upper part of the arms, but with girls who lack the necessary pigments it can appear on the back. It is stated that there are hundreds so affected to-day. In Sweden, where the people are very fair, it has been found that men who wear peaked caps do not suffer from skin cancer, but the women who wear large hoods that do not cover the forehead are affected in large numbers by cancer on the upper part of the face. People of Swedish, Irish and Scottish descent have been found to be more subject to skin cancer than the English stock.