WHO casts a shadow over sunlight?

I swear, the World Health Organization is off its rocker lately. Sometimes they're spot-on with their recommendations on problems facing global health, but recently they just can't seem to get a thing right. Their stance on H5N1 "bird flu" is way out of whack (don't get me started on it), and then there's this latest gem of a headline, as reported by Reuters...

Sun Kills 60,000 a Year, WHO says

Yes, according to that august advisory body, sixty thousand people worldwide shuffle off their mortal coil at the hands of the sun, mostly by malignant melanomas and other skin cancers. If the article has it right, a new WHO report is also blaming the sun for skin aging, cataracts, and cold sores, too.

The new report is being billed as the first ever to detail the effects of global sun exposure (I assume they mean what they perceive as negative effects). Among the document's recommendations are to stay in the shade, use sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher, and avoid artificial tanning salons.

Well, they got 1 out of 3, anyway. I'm no big fan of tanning beds myself -- except perhaps for brief UV exposure for mine-workers who never see the light of day, or for parts of Alaska, Canada, and Iceland since there's very little daylight to be exposed to... But your best bet is to use full-spectrum UV light -- not a tanning bed.

Hmmm. I wonder when the report on how many people would be killed (everyone) if there were NO sun is coming out? And what about the WHO report detailing the negative effects of having no (or too little) sunlight exposure -- things like rickets, osteoporosis and other bone and tissue diseases, autoimmune conditions and accelerated rates of cancer? Can we expect to see that one soon?

I'll tell you, I wouldn't want to go without sunlight until the WHO wises up and starts recommending what's best for people: Ample daily sunlight exposure and the avoidance of any kind of commercial sun-block. Some compelling evidence I've seen (you have, too, if you've been a long-term reader of mine) indicates these goops CAUSE cancer instead of preventing it!

But in some sunnier sunlight news...

A million-subject study conducted in the UK shows that sunlight exposure increases the survivability of cancer -- especially lung and breast varieties.

The King's College London study examined data from approximately 1.5 million men and women diagnosed with various types of cancer between 1971 and 2002. Their finding: Those who were diagnosed during the sunniest times of the year (summer and fall), had an average 6% lower death rate...

Women with breast cancer showed a 14% lower death risk!

The study's conclusion, published in the International Journal of Cancer, is that sunlight exposure at the time of cancer development and diagnosis is a significant predictor of survivability.

The results add to a mounting pile of evidence pointing to sun-spurred vitamin D as playing an important role in the body's resistance -- and ultimate triumph -- over cancer...

Kind of like I've been saying for 30 years or so.

Taking on WHO maligns the sun,

William Campbell Douglass II, MD

August 21, 2006, http://www.douglassreport.com/dailydose/freecopy.html