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June 2024 Issue
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Science


AGAINST SUNSCREEN ABSOLUTISM

Moderate sun exposure can be good for you. Why won’t American experts
acknowledge that?

By Rowan Jacobsen

Illustration by Gabriela Pesqueira. Source: Dimarik / Getty.
May 10, 2024
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Australia is a country of abundant sunshine, but the skin of most Australians is
better adapted to gloomy England than the beaches of Brisbane. The country’s
predominantly white population has by far the world’s highest rate of skin
cancer, and for years the public-health establishment has warned residents about
the dangers of ultraviolet light. A 1980s ad campaign advised Australians to
“Slip, Slop, Slap”—if you had to go out in the sun, slip on a shirt, slop on
some sunscreen, and slap on a hat. The only safe amount of sun was none at all.


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Then, in 2023, a consortium of Australian public-health groups did something
surprising: It issued new advice that takes careful account, for the first time,
of the sun’s positive contributions. The advice itself may not seem
revolutionary—experts now say that people at the lowest risk of skin cancer
should spend ample time outdoors—but the idea at its core marked a radical
departure from decades of public-health messaging. “Completely avoiding sun
exposure is not optimal for health,” read the groups’ position statement, which
extensively cites a growing body of research. Yes, UV rays cause skin cancer,
but for some, too much shade can be just as harmful as too much sun.



It’s long been known that sun exposure triggers vitamin D production in the
skin, and that low levels of vitamin D are associated with increased rates of
stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, depression, osteoporosis,
and many other diseases. It was natural to assume that vitamin D was responsible
for these outcomes. “Imagine a treatment that could build bones, strengthen the
immune system and lower the risks of illnesses like diabetes, heart and kidney
disease, high blood pressure and cancer,” The New York Times wrote in 2010.
“Some research suggests that such a wonder treatment already exists. It’s
vitamin D.” By 2020, more than one in six adults were on that wonder treatment
in the form of daily supplements, which promise to deliver the sun’s benefits
without its dangers.

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Rowan Jacobsen has written about science and nature for Smithsonian Magazine,
Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, Harper’s, and many other
publications. He is working on a book about the science of sun exposure.