f13.net

In my coursework today, I found this tidbit:

Quoted from Voyage of Discovery: From the Big Bang to the Ice Age by Marc Defant:

"In Australia and New Zealand among adults under the age of 40, melanoma is the most common cancer. The numbers are astounding -- more than 66 percent of the Australian population can count on developing some type of skin cancer before they die, and the percentage is bound to increase as the ozone layer is reduced further."

Enjoy!  :awesome_for_real:

I'd have thought some form of poisonous critter would kill them long before the sun did.    :grin:

It didn't say they'd die of skin cancer, just contract it.

So they'll get skin cancer, then die from a poisonous animal. (The other 34% died from a poisonous animal before being diagnosed with skin cancer.)

I wonder if it's the same case for similar regions. I've said this many times, but I've always thought of Australia as just a bigger version of Texas.

...

After a bit of googling, TX ranks third in the States (melanoma).

I want to start smuggling weapons to the aborigines.

Speaking strictly from a historical perspective, Australia would be more like Georgia than Texas.  :uhrr:

But still, I figured I just had to share that tidbit.  :drill:

Skin cancer is a really big deal here.  Kids have to have hat at school or they can't play outside.  The local preschool teaches kids about wearing hats and putting on sunscreen from about 2 years and up (my 3 year old puts on her own sunscreen - badly, but that's not the point).  Our doctor suggests an annual mole check for me just to make sure (I am of palest english descent).  At the height of summer in Melbourne I'd probably burn in about 10-15mins.

But in summer people still go to the beach to sunbath or just lie out.  People still voluntarily zap themselves in solariums.  Go figure.

We do know this. It's part of our culture now. When you go to the doctor, you make sure you get any weird things on your skin checked out. Everybody is aware of "slip, slop, slap", (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAu5wCTEBt0) a national public service ad campaign that urged us all to slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, and slap on a hat. The primary school rule mentioned above when my mum was teaching, was "no hat, no play" for break times.

We even got to the point where some kids were deficient in vitamin D they should have been getting from the sun, so there is some rethinking going on. But everybody knows someone who's had a skin cancer removed. Even so, many of us treat it like smokers treat smoking. You've got to live your life.

Having lived in the UK and Australia, I really notice the strength of the Aussie sun. It feels too intense, like sitting too near to a heater. But because it's sunshine, it still feels pleasant. There are always British tourists in summer who get painfully burnt because they have come to Australia for the sun - some end up in hospital because it can be like burns from a fire.

The burnt english do make an amusing spectacle, though.

... or a stingray!

Crikey!

Until I started putting on sunscreen I'd burn my arm driving anywhere longer than 15 minutes during summer. :(