Today's beaches are jammed with people who rely on sunscreen for a safe tan. Yet epidemiologists note that the rise in sunscreen use has proceeded in tandem with an increase in skin cancers. Epidemiologist Marianne Berwick of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York carefully laid out the data on sunscreen use and skin cancer at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Philadelphia last February. Sunscreens may not protect against skin cancer, including melanoma, the deadliest form, she concluded. "We don't really know whether sunscreens prevent skin cancer," Berwick says. People ought to be cautious about relying on these products, she told those attending the meeting.
展开▼
