Cheap Vacations Linked to Rising Skin Cancer Rates Among Seniors
A new report from the nonprofit group Cancer Research UK blames the rise on package holidays.
Researchers say that as all-inclusive getaways to tropical destinations have become more affordable over the last several decades, more and more people are accumulating skin damage from sun exposure.
A study suggests 5,700 pensioners are diagnosed with melanoma - the deadliest form of skin disease - now compared with around 600 cases per year in the seventies.
Sue Deans, a 69-year-old mother and retired teacher, has been diagnosed with malignant melanoma twice since the turn of the millennium, according to the Huffington Post.
She said: "I was part of the generation when package holidays became affordable and you could go abroad nearly every year.
"I don't think there was much understanding at the time about the impact that too much sun can have on your risk of getting skin cancer.
"And I loved the sun but suffered quite a bit of sunburn over the years."
Around 13,300 people across a wide range of ages are diagnosed with malignant melanoma in the UK each year making it the country's fifth most common cancer overall and the second most common cancer in young adults aged 15 to 34.
"Sun harm accumulates over time thus avoiding sunburn and sunbeds is essential further as planning to apprehend your skin kind thus you don't exaggerate it on the beach or maybe within the garden," said Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer analysis UK's head of health data in the report.
"You will burn reception even as simply as you'll on vacation, thus bear in mind to pay time within the shade, wear a jersey and a hat to guard your skin and frequently apply sun block that's a minimum of issue fifteen and has four stars. Swapping dangerous sun habits permanently ones may save your life."
"In the past, we've got most likely talked plenty regarding the importance of protection of your kids, and by implication there's maybe a way that this gets reduced as you grow up," aforementioned faculty member Julia Newton-Bishop, academician of medicine at urban center University. "It's not less important: if you're pale scraped, you have got to take care at any age."
