Sun Could Cause Cancer For Four Hours Even In The Dark

The sun disappears from your day if you disappear from it, and move indoors, or into the shade. However, you could still be a target of cancer, says a new study. The sun in fact harms your skin for hours after you get exposed to it, according to gizmodo.com.

Researchers from Yale University show that sunlight damages the DNA over a period of time. While the UV rays from the sun harm the DNA of skin cells leading to the formation of 'cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers' or CPDs, they lead to mutations and maybe cancer.

Published in the journal 'Science' on Thursday, Douglas Brash, from the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale University School of Medicine, with his team, showed that the "cancer causing effects" of UV radiation from tanning beds and sunlight go on for hours after exposure due to chemical changes, according to techtimes.com.

Experiments with mouse skin cells show that skin cells continue to produce CPDs for about three hours after they are exposed to UV light. The effect is thus just seen in cells with melanin, a skin pigment that helps to protect against UV rays.

Hence, exposure to UV light starts the enzymes that remain active for hours. They combine and form an electron inside the melanin, dumping energy into the melanin through the electron, which then gets shifted to the DNA, leading to the CPDs.

"The main lesson of our research is that your skin doesn't stop getting damaged when you get out of the sun," said Douglas Brash, senior author of the paper, according to newskok.com.

Hence, the sun's effect is underestimated! Still, it is perhaps possible to block the effects of the enzymes through antioxidants. Thus, in a Petri dish, the team is trying to simulate the effect with ethyl sorbate. With a little time and effort, it is possible to create a sunscreen to prevent the after-effects, explain scientists.