Essay on Skin Cancer

every aspect of his life.Essay on Skin Cancer:

Since the 1980s people have heard about the causes and effects of over sun exposure. Yet, it is surprising to see millions of people still lying on the beach every summer, or working out in the sun without proper protection. Possibly there is a lack of understanding. Or lack of care. Humans are known to be ignorant. But is it really ignorance? Or is it just lack of guidance? This is why we chose to do our project on skin cancer; to spread awareness.

In the United States, more than 600,000 cases of skin cancer were reported in 1999 alone, most of them caused by over exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. Around 30,000 of these cases were the most dangerous kind of cancer, called melanoma. Melanoma is skin cancer directly related to exposure to the sun, and approximately 6,500 people will die from it. Also, about one out of every six people will develop some form of skin cancer and more than 90 percent of those cases will be directly related to sun exposure. These statistics can even hit home: Malignant melanoma is the fifth most common cancer among Oregonians, with 1,612 total cases diagnosed and 123 deaths in 2002. These kinds of statistics should make a big impact but yet people still ignore the dangers of the sunlight

There are three major factors that raise a person's risk of getting melanoma. Firstly, there is a hereditary factor. Hereditary factors are factors we are born with; our general genetic makeup, such as our skin and hair color. In general, light-skinned, light-eyed people of northern European backgrounds are most likely to suffer from skin cancer. These people often have red or blond hair. In contrast, dark-haired Caucasians, Asians, and Hispanics suffer less from this disease, and dark-skinned people are 50 times less likely than light-skinned people to get skin cancer.

Secondly, it is the environmental factor. Where we live seems to influence our chances of contracting the disease. Geography has the direct relationship with skin cancer. The further away, north or south, of the equator you are, the less likely you are to get skin cancer because the sunlight is not directly overhead, but instead hits the Earth at a softer angle. For example, someone who lives in southern Florida, where is fairly near the equator, is more likely to contract this disease than someone who lives in Alaska, where the sunlight are never directly overhead. This means that the rays take longer to reach the Earth, so the ozone layer of the Earth's atmosphere is able to stop more of the sun's dangerous ultraviolet light. One interesting topic I read recently that a comparison showed that Japanese who live in Hawaii are 88 times more likely to get skin cancer than Japanese living in Japan. That shows that a difference in geography may increase the risk of contracting skin cancer.

So far we have one hereditary and one