Nuclear Oncology

Posts Tagged ‘skin cancer’

The risk of self-tanning in children
Children under 18 should not expose your body to this radiation, warn experts. Adolescents may trigger future skin cancer, ocular melanoma, wrinkles and sagging skin.

In this group of young people is believed to sunbathe a bit in these cabins, mitigate the damage to the skin from sun exposure. However, several studies have shown that such ideas are wrong. “Not only protect but enhance the chances of burning. They are a risk factor for developing melanoma, especially when used before age 20. These cabins should be banned in adolescence,” says Eduardo Nagore Enguídanos, head Valencian Institute of Clinical Oncology.

For his part, Ramon Grimalt, Dermatology Unit of Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, explains: “The skin is sensitive and has an immature immune system, especially in children under six years. In addition, given that skin ‘not forgotten’ and that the effect of radiation is cumulative, the sooner the exposures occur before the line may be exceeded cap ”

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that children under 18 are not tanning sessions with ultraviolet A (UVA), because it is a practice that carries a serious risk of cancer in 2005.

No elector, according Grimalt, in the Spanish legal framework, “there is no explicit prohibition in this direction. Like WHO, we move only in the context of the recommendations.”

Once again, the association between self-tanning lamps and melanoma was confirmed two years later, in 2007, by an international team of researchers reviewed all the work developed so far. They concluded that of 19 studies reviewed, individuals who used this type of indoor tanning were 15% more likely to develop melanoma.

Report these and other recommendations is the first thing you should do the person responsible for the tanning, the gym or the salon where these sessions take place.

Health Ministry sources explain that the establishments in which these are being done “are regulated by regional standards and, therefore, each Autonomous Community is responsible for authorizing or not functioning as well as appropriate controls.”

Knowing how long you can spend in the sun, without running the risk of ultraviolet rays damage the skin, it is now possible thanks to a system that calculates the appropriate period of exposure to solar radiation, according to the skin of each person and the place where you are.

With this invention seeks to reduce the incidence of skin cancer. “The software determines the maximum recommended exposure to solar UV radiation, including the use of sunscreen, for people with different skin types displayed at any time and day of the year,” he told EFE Rubén Piacentini, director of Institute of Physics of the city of Rosario Argentina (IFIR), which developed the project.

According to the Argentine newspaper Infobae, the system can be installed on any computer and was created with the collaboration of researchers from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, Argentina and the Foundation Skin Cancer.

How to use

For information, the user must enter your skin type, the kind of surface you are (sand, water or concrete), time of day and geographic location in which you, as the height or snow can increase the risk of radiation by 60 percent.
Sunbathing without dying in the attempt

The software was designed to calculate the data anywhere in Argentina, although “you can develop a similar application to another country or region, with the right information,” says Piacentini.

In fact, the IFIR has already started negotiations with regional governments and organizations in Ecuador and Brazil to implement this program called UVARG (Software for the estimation of sun exposure in Argentina).

Advantage

“The software allows to know instantly and in real time the danger of ultraviolet radiation, but can also predict months in advance what will be the risk, making it a useful tool for planning any vacation destination,” said the scientist.

Another use would be for workers who perform outside, since the system tells them what protections they should take.

The system also alerts “on special situations such as the development of the ozone hole or about significant changes in the average value of this layer in future years,” said Piacentini.

The scientists who developed this software tool say that if people respect the times suggested sun exposure reduces the risk of diseases like skin cancer.

Currently, this disease is the most common cancers and the number of cases is growing at a rate of 5 percent annually, according to international statistics.

Meanwhile, each year 600 people die in Argentina due to the disease and detected 1,400 cases new, according to the Argentina Society of Dermatology (SAD).