Bigger danger than drowning.....?

I walked off the beach on Saturday evening in Ballyhack with a glowing red head, not at the embarrassment of having my ass handed to me during the comp ( ) but more the traditional accompaniment that goes hand in hand with a sunny day spent by/on the water. Glancing in the mirror this morning, it appears I've lost a nice layer of skin off my forehead, nose etc. No big deal you might think but then I started wondering how many times that's likely to happen over the course of the year given that its only April and it prompted a few thoughts.

We, as members of the IFSA, are not permitted to take part in a boat competition without wearing a personal flotation device. There are laws governing the use of lifejackets and PFDs on boats below a certain size that you cant even take to the water without wearing one and rightly so I might add. Charter boats, Ferries, Planes all carry them. Anyone working on or near water has to wear one. Again, rightly so. It would appear however that there is a bigger risk to your health though than drowning.

Now, I know that you can prove absolutely anything you want with statistics but here is some food for thought. I apologise for using 3 year old UK data for this purpose but its the most relevant comprehensive data I can find. In the UK in 2011, 407 people died from drowning via either accident or natural causes (I'm not sure what that means other than this is the number of people dying from drowning who didnt jump in with the intention of killing themselves). (Source RoSPA)

In the same year in the UK, a staggering 1871 people died of skin cancer. (Source Cancer Research UK) Isn't that staggering....? over 1400 more people in the UK died from a largely preventable cancer than from drowning. Food for thought if nothing else and certainly a major indication its time we took a little more care of ourselves.

We have all walked off a beach or stepped off a boat burnt to a crisp and thought little of it but that damage has long term effects that perhaps we aren't paying enough attention to. That might happen a half dozen times or more over the course of a year and is absolutely without a doubt significantly increasing your risk level for developing a melanoma.

So, along with educating folks about water safety and insisting on the use of PFDs it could be as worthwhile, if not more so, to devote as much time and effort into advising on the use of sunscreen, keeping the shirts on, hat wearing etc. I appreciate my data may be flawed, but its as comprehensive as I can get. Even if the figures matched it would make it a completely valid point but the initial interpretation is that you are 4.5 times more likely to die of Skin Cancer than you are of Drowning and that is absolutely mind blowing.

Great post pete,i suffer from sun burning myself and i will hold my hand up and say i have often looked at the sunscreen in the boat and not bothered to put some on, stupidness in the first degree. only last week a got the back of my ear burnt off me and have lost enough layers of skin to bleed, i was also told i had a pre cancer growth on my forehead a couple of years ago so i should be a lot more carefull, again a great post this should be made a sticky so its always there to remind people of the dangers of the sunn at all times not just the summer sun.

Thanks John, I don't think it's a coincidence that on the area that takes the worst of it, the back of my neck, I had to get two moles removed that were deemed dodgy. The stats are staggering, I was blown away myself.

The Aussies have a Slip, Slap, Slop campaign - slip on a t-shirt, slap on a hat, slop on sun cream. Itt's been very effective in driving down rates of melanoma apparently. To the extent that Aussie children are in danger of developing rickets because they aren't getting enough sunshine on their skin to form vitamin D.

Bizarre old world, really.

I put it on before I leave , most times its washed off by the first few hours with wet hands, sweat etc and am always wary of re applying because I don't want my hands smelling like sun cream and ruining the bait

Its a great point Pete. Im heading to Kerry next weekend and one of the first things on my list is always a small tube of factor 15 or similar. I always carry one in my lure bag. Madness not to.

I always use factor 50 plus especially on my face, Some people think it's cool to look like Sunderland Fc and then say ah sure I'll be brown in a few days!, not cool, especially for Irish skin and not worth it in the long run.

Very valid point Pete.
The nearer you are to water on a sunny day, the more reflected sunlight you receive on your skin.
in other words you get the radiation from the sun shining down on you and another helping from the same sun reflecting off the water. A figure in the region of 10-12% extra sun exposure compared to an inland location.

That's it no more naked fishing on ennereilly for me!I couldn't afford all the sun block!!
To be honest I worked outside in the heatwave last year and always slapped on a good layer of factor 30 at least! Starting at 4.00 am and packing up at 12 to get out of the sun and glad to do it!
One of my neighbour,s had skin cancer on his neck and it opened my eyes to the dangers of sun burn!

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Factor 40 is the way to go alright, just remember to put it on before you bait up or you'll be divorced in no time due to the smell.