SKINCARE
“GETTING PAINFUL SUNBURN JUST ONCE EVERY TWO YEARS CAN TRIPLE THE RISK OF MALIGNANT MELANOMA.”
SAVE YOUR SKIN
Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK. A rise in the number of people working outdoors prompted IOSH to shift the focus of its ‘No Time to Lose’ campaign to warn about the dangers of solar radiation. Tim Walsh from IOSH tells us more.
From construction workers and farmers to tree surgeons and postal workers, the great outdoors is where many of us ply our trade – and face a common health risk.
Skin cancer caused by exposure to the sun’s rays is a very real danger to anyone who works outside. According to research commissioned by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), on average five people a week in the UK will be diagnosed with skin cancer contracted at work.
IOSH’s new campaign to raise awareness of work-related cancers and their causes, No Time to Lose, has turned its attention to this disease because we believe so much more can be done to beat it.
We have created free guidance and resources for employers and safety and health professionals to help them assess and manage the risks. We are also offering engagement tools because practice-based research shows that raising awareness is an important first step.
www.tomorrowshs.com WHY SOLAR
RADIATION IS A RISK Solar radiation is the radiant energy emitted by the sun. The sun emits different kinds of light, some of which we can see and others that are invisible:
• the visible light you see • infrared radiation you feel as heat
• ultraviolet (UV) radiation that produces tanned skin
“SOLAR RADIATION IS
CLASSIFIED AS A GROUP 1 CARCINOGEN AND
HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS A DEFINITE CAUSE OF CANCER FOR HUMANS.”
It is the UV radiation element which can lead to premature ageing, wrinkles and ultimately skin cancer, if we fail to protect our skin. Solar radiation is classified as a Group 1 carcinogen and has been identified as
a definite cause of cancer for humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
Today, the risk of getting skin cancer from sun exposure is well known and widely understood – we hear about it in the media and we see the marketing associated with sun creams and other products, almost universally aimed at consumers in the holiday, sports and leisure markets.
In contrast, in many industry sectors, there is a failure to acknowledge or properly manage the risks, often because of a lack of awareness of the issue’s scale, and because of myths around how sun damage can happen and risk factors in different climates.
Another piece of research commissioned by IOSH into sun exposure in the UK construction sector found that awareness of solar radiation risks is generally poor. Two-thirds of workers outside for an average of nearly seven hours a day thought they were not at risk or were unsure if they were.
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Photo credit: clustertheory / Best Modern / CC BY-NC
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