Sun alert as skin cancers quadruple

Deaths from the skin cancer melanoma have more than quadrupled in men and more than trebled in women over the past 30 years, it was announced today, as Government medical experts warned of the dangers of the sun.

The rise in package holidays and ignorance over the potentially fatal effects of sunlight is "the major cause" of the massive increase in melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, the National Radiological Protection Board said.

The NRPB also warns that greater exposure to UVR (ultraviolet radiation)in childhood is likely to be associated with a greater risk of melanoma later in life.

Dr Jill Meara of the NRPB said: "If you go on holiday outside this country with the aim of getting a tan you need to appreciate there is a risk in that tan."

She said: "It is important for children to be protected when they are too young to make their minds up for themselves."

Between 1962 and 1965 there were 842 deaths from melanoma among men. By the period 1995 to 2000 the number had risen to 4,060. Deaths among women rose from 1,157 to 3,702 over the same period.

The NRPB, a governmentappointed body of medical experts, also warned against the use of sun beds and lamps. Professor Anthony Swerdlow, of the Institute of Cancer Research, said sun beds represent "artificial and unnecessary extra carcinogenic exposure". He said it was "likely" that sun beds had contributed to a small extent to the rise in deaths.

Holidaymakers are advised to take a number of crucial steps in the sun - wear wrap-around sunglasses and loose clothing and apply sun screen of factor 15 upwards.

About 40,000 people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year in the UK and 2,000 die.