Sunbathers: Beware the A-ray

clipped from www.newscientist.com Yet when epidemiologists began to look at the effects of sunscreens in the 1990s, they found no evidence that these creams and lotions were reducing the impact of our love of sunshine by protecting us from melanoma. While sunburn is mostly caused by the part of the ultraviolet spectrum known as UVB, there's growing evidence linking melanomas to UVA. Older sunscreens allowed people to stay out in the sun longer without burning but provided little protection against UVA, so they increased people's exposure to these wavelengths. If UVA really is responsible for melanoma, a whole generation may have been misled into thinking sunscreens allowed them to soak up the rays with impunity. Most newer sunscreens do now provide some protection against UVA, but there is no uniform standard for measuring this protection, so it's hard to know what you are buying. What's more, even the best modern sunscreens don't seem to provide enough protection against the harmful effects of UVA.