Sunscreens are ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-absorbing chemicals that attenuate the amount and nature of UVR reaching viable cells in the skin. They are selected and tested for their ability to prevent erythema. No sunscreen prevents photodamage, as it has been demonstrated that suberythemal doses of UVR cause a variety of molecular changes (including DNA damage) in these cells. Furthermore, the ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS To determine the roughness of the surface of human skin at highly sun-exposed anatomical sites in a wide age range in order to derive consequences for sunscreen application. METHODS The forehead, cheek, nose, shoulder, and dorsal hand of 4 age groups (0-9, 20-39, 40-59, and >60 years) were investigated by replica formation, and areal topography was determined by confocal chrom...

Ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from the sun may lead to photocarcinogenesis of the skin. Sunscreens were used to protect the skin by reducing UVB irradiance, but sunscreen use did not reduce sunburn episodes. It was shown that UVB-induced erythema depends on surface exposure but not irradiance of UVB. We previously showed that irradiance plays a critical role in UVB-induced cell differentiation....

OBJECTIVE Sun protection behaviors are important to the prevention of skin cancers, but little is known about changes over time in attitudes and behavior. METHODS Cross-sectional surveys were carried out among university students in thirteen European countries in 1990 (n = 10,241) and 2000 (n = 10,161). Sun protection behavior and beliefs about the importance of sunscreen use for health were ...

Sun protection products, including sunscreen lotions, are designed to absorb or reflect the sun’s UV radiation to protect the skin from damage. The rating system for sunscreens specifies a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) value, which can be thought of as a time factor for the protection of skin compared to exposure without any protection. For example, if a person would show visible erythema (sunbur...

The recent article by Autier et al. (1) invites some critical evaluation, since it has important public health implications. The authors assessed the influence of the sunscreen sun protection factor (SPF) on the duration of sun exposure and sunburn episodes in two groups of young people given unlabeled products of either SPF 30 or SPF 10. They concluded that sun exposure was 25% longer in volun...

IMPORTANCE Sunscreen use is a modifiable behavior that can help reduce the risk for skin cancer, prevent sunburns, mitigate photoaging, and treat photosensitive dermatoses. A better understanding of consumer sunscreen preferences would inform dermatologists in their own recommendations. OBJECTIVE To determine the characteristics and the most commonly cited positive and negative features of hi...

BACKGROUND Skin cancers represent a major challenge within the ever growing group of long time surviving organ transplant recipients (OTR) world wide. Especially UV-induced non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC) like invasive squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and actinic keratoses (AK), and basal cell carcinoma (BCC), outnumber every other form of cancer in organ transplant recipients. Despite encouragi...