Sun Protection in Man

P.U. Giacomoni

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9780444508393
• eBook ISBN: 9780080518169
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Optics & Light

"Sun Protection in Man" looks at the beneficial and harmful effects of solar radiation. The physiological consequences of sun exposure have been systematically studied starting at the end of the nineteenth century and we now have accumulated knowledge about how Caucasian and Asian skins reacts to solar radiation. The chemical effects of solar ultraviolet radiation have been analyzed with particular emphasis during the second half of the twentieth century. Research on micro-organisms has allowed us to understand the mechanisms of UV-induced mutagenesis and photosensitization. Studies with laboratory rodents have opened the path to the understanding of UV-induced immune-depression, carcinogenesis, photo-damage and photo-aging. The results of these studies have enabled other scientists to investigate the same phenomena in human organs such as the skin and the eye. UV radiation damages hair, as well. The present knowledge in these fields is summarized in some of the chapters of this monograph.Mass phenomenon in Europe with the generalization of summer vacations which were a consequence of social reforms introducing the concept of "paid vacations". This created a need for protection and opened a market for sunscreens. This monograph is concerned with sun protection as a whole and is not just "another book on sunscreens". Nonetheless, in these days of general concern, it is important to learn about the efficiency of sunscreens. Several authors discuss how to reduce the number of impinging photons and explain why sunscreens seem to offer less protection than expected. Guidelines are given on how to use sunscreens in everyday life, which are expressed rigorously though clearly, for access to the common reader.Our knowledge on the relationship between sun and humans is at the early stages of development. Industrial and commercial activities are concerned by the development of this knowledge, and rules have been and will be promulgated to guarantee efficacy and safety of sun-products. It is hoped that this monograph will be of interest to the scholar, the layman and the legislator.

Chapter 1

Women (and men) and the sun in the past

Paolo U. Giacomoni

Abstract

Painting and literary descriptions allow us to conclude that ancient Greeks protected themselves against sunlight. This was the consequence of a cultural predilection for women with white skin, as well as of the experimental knowledge of the harmfulness of solar radiation on the skin and the eye. Other peoples such as the Etruscans and the Romans also preferred white-skinned women. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the sun was the object of astronomical observation, but no cause–effect relationship seems to have been pointed out between solar radiation and skin diseases in the so-called middle (or ‘dark’) Ages. Information about the knowledge of the Arab world is not available to laymen in the western world, possibly because of the long-lasting fight against Arab culture, which culminated with the burning of Avicenna’s Canon organized by Paracelsus in Basle, Switzerland, in the summer of 1527. No mention of sun-related harm is reported in Hufeland’s summa about how to increase life span, published at the end of the eighteenth century. One of the first descriptions of the clinical effects of heavy exposure to solar radiation in modern times (burning, conjunctivitis) is to be found in the account of the climbing of the Mont Blanc written in 1839 by Henriette d’Angeville, who was the first literate woman to climb that mountain.

Table of contents

Abstract

1.1. Introduction

1.2. Evidence of protection against the sun in ancient times

1.2.1. Examples from the literature

1.2.2. Examples from the paintings

1.2.3. Historical accounts

1.3. The middle ages and the modern times

References

1.1 Introduction

Knowledge of history is generally accepted to be necessary to help avoiding the repetition of the errors of the past. The history of science allows one to understand the intellectual developments, which lead to new experiments and new concepts. It might also provide one with serendipitous intuitions and may prompt the undertaking of new experiments. In general, knowledge of the history of science makes one aware of the spiritual continuity from ancient philosophers to middle age astronomers and anatomist, down to present day physicists and biochemists.

When it comes to photobiology and sun protection, every high school student is aware of the fact that men and women in agricultural societies in ancient times had recognized the importance of the sun for growing crops. The ancient Egyptians also knew that the seasonal behavior of the Nile was linked to astronomical rhythms, and the sun was the most potent of their Gods. The ancient Greeks developed a different Weltanschauung, and the God of sun was also the God of music and of the other arts, but was subjected to the higher authority of Zeus. Yet the absence of sun was perceived as a curse. Winter was considered to be the season in which Demeter (i.e. the Earth) was grieving because her daughter Persephone was under the earth with Hades, the God of the dead, and the dead themselves were to be forever deprived of sunlight. This was crucial for the metaphysical beliefs of the ancient Greeks. So crucial that the adventures of Ulysses are the consequence of the anger of the God of sun. Angry at Ulysses and his fellows, who killed and ate a few of his sacred cows, Hyperion demands and obtains revenge from Zeus by threatening to enter the domain of the dead and to shine his light upon them [1].

The Greek philosophers whose work has been transmitted through the ages were more interested in mathematics and astronomy than in human physiology, so we have to interpret literature and artwork to learn what they knew about the effects of the sun. Had the library of Alexandria not been destroyed by fire in 47 BC, our insight into the knowledge of the Greek world might be larger.

1.2 Evidence of protection against the sun in ancient times

When thinking of ancient Greeks, the image that comes to mind is of naked athletes or warriors, as sculpted in marble or painted on red and black vases, amphorae or craters. A naive conclusion from these observations could be that ancient Greeks were not concerned about solar radiation. Yet, the observation of other paintings or the reading of Greek and Latin literature convinces us that this is not the case.

1.2.1 Examples from the literature

The literature is not rich in information about the methods used by men and women to protect themselves against the sun, but a few examples will indicate that care was taken to avoid excessive exposure. Tan was not palatable to ancient Greeks. Hera, the ‘first lady’ of the Olympus, is repeatedly quoted in the Iliad as having white arms.

In the Homeric description of the adventures of a bronze-age hero, Ulysses, one finds hints about the awareness of women of the effects of solar radiation. After spending several years with the nymph Calypsos in the island Ogigia, Ulysses leaves her, determined to return back home to Ithaca. After 17 days of peaceful sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, Ulysses is caught by a storm, which lasts three days and three nights and washes him ashore on the island of Scheria. Exhausted by the fight against the elements, Ulysses falls asleep and is awakened next day, by the garrulous noise of several young women accompanying Princess Nausicaa on the beach. The girls were washing the linens of the royal family in the water of a nearby river then exposing them to the sun to dry. Homer says that while they were waiting for the linen to dry, they swam in the sea. After the bath they applied olive oil to their bodies, had a sort of picnic and then, having tossed aside the veils covering their heads, they played ball [2].

This indicates that these young women wanted to be unimpeded when playing ball, but that they had indeed covered their bodies and their heads after the bath. Before the game, for the picnic, they had dressed themselves, and had covered their heads because they knew that men preferred women with white skin. Indeed, we know from Theocritos that cyclops Polyphemos, in love with nymph Galatea, praises her beauty and complains because she does not manifest her love, if any, to him: “Oh white Galatea, why do you refuse the one who loves you, you, whiter than fermented milk, softer than a lamb?” [3].

An emblematic image of the care taken by women in ancient Greece to protect themselves against the burning rays of the sun is the character of Ismene approaching the sacred wood in Colonos, where her old father Oedipus tries to enter and die peacefully. Her sister Antigone sees her coming: “I see a woman. She comes toward us, mounted on a young etnean mare. On her head, a thessalian hat with large brims covers her face to protect her against the sun” [4].

Greek women were aware that a white skin was more preferable. When they suspected that they were not sufficiently white, they applied an ointment topically called psimythion, made of lead carbonate, mixed with other undefined and possibly unsafe organic compounds [5].

Etruscans were not afraid of working in the fields and chasing game under the sun. They paint themselves as tanned men, but their women are always painted as white. Less bellicose than the Achaeans, they paint scenes of every day life with men wearing coats and hats. Only dancers are naked. The Romans too, possibly because of their direct filiation from the Etruscans, seem to have preferred white skin for the loved ones (be they boys or girls). An example is to be fou...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Comprehensive Series in Photosciences
• Front Matter
• Copyright page
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Volume Preface
• The Editor
• Contributors
• Chapter 1: Women (and men) and the sun in the past
• Chapter 2: A perspective on the beneficial effects of moderate exposure to sunlight: bone health, cancer prevention, mental health and well being
• Chapter 3: The negative effects of solar radiation: a clinical overview
• Chapter 4: The effects of sunlight on the skin of Asians
• Chapter 5: Effects of solar radiation on the human immune system
• Chapter 6: The negative effects of solar and artificial irradiation: photoaging of the skin, its clinical appearance and underlying mechanisms
• Chapter 7: The epidemiology of solar radiation and skin cancer
• Chapter 8: Hazards of sunlight exposure to the eye
• Chapter 9: Photodegradation of human hair: a microscopy study
• Chapter 10: UV damage to nucleic acid components
• Chapter 11: Lipid photooxidative damage in biological membranes: reaction mechanisms, cytotoxic consequences, and defense strategies
• Chapter 12: Photo-oxidation of proteins and its consequences
• Chapter 13: Erythema, a link between UV-induced DNA damage, cell death and clinical effects?
• Chapter 14: UV radiation, mutations and oncogenic pathways in skin cancer
• Chapter 15: Modulation of gene expression by solar ultraviolet radiation
• Chapter 16: Cytotoxicity and morphological endpoints of exposure to UV: cultured cells as a model system
• Chapter 17: Drug-induced skin phototoxicity: lessons from the fluoroquinolones
• Chapter 18: UV-induced pigmentation in human skin
• Chapter 19: Nucleotide excision repair of UV-radiation induced photolesions in human cells
• Chapter 20: Natural defence against ultraviolet radiation: the role of heat shock proteins
• Chapter 21: p53 protein and the response of human skin to UV
• Chapter 22: Effects of solar radiation on detoxification mechanisms in the skin
• Chapter 23: Eye protection from sunlight damage
• Chapter 24: Artificial protection against solar radiation — fabrics
• Chapter 25: Self tanning
• Chapter 26: Photochemical and photophysical properties of sunscreens
• Chapter 27: Sunscreens: use and misuse
• Chapter 28: Sunscreens: practical applications
• Chapter 29: Protection against solar radiation — protective properties of antioxidants
• Chapter 30: Systemic photoprotection Dietary intervention and therapy
• Chapter 31: Enhancement of repair of UV damage in humans
• Chapter 32: Boosting the immune system
• Chapter 33: Skin pigmentation enhancers
• Chapter 34: Metabolic effects of solar radiation and enhancers of energy metabolism
• Chapter 35: Sunlamps and sunbeds: scientific and regulatory issues
• Chapter 36: Solar radiation at the Earth’s surface
• Index