Although 2025 brings with it a completely new trip around the sun, there is no novelty surrounding the seriousness of skin cancer. This is also true for the beautiful melanin-enriched skin of millions of individuals within our South African borders.
It doesn’t take a doctorate to come to the conclusion that skin cancer has the potential of affecting anyone with skin. While it is true that darker-toned skin has higher levels of melanin protecting the body from the harm caused by the sun’s UV, it is not full-proof by any means. Let’s take a walk down the sunlit path that separates societal folklore from scientifically-proven fact when it comes to dark skin pigments and sun-induced skin cancer.
Lore 1: I don’t have to worry about skin cancer - my melanin will protect me!
Melanin does offer protection from the sun, providing a lower risk to individuals with more of it. But did you know that even though the darkest skin tone provides a SPF of 13, the Skin Cancer Foundation (in other words, the organisation that’s got years of data surrounding the dynamic nature of skin cancer) strongly recommends a minimum of SPF 30 to consider your skin safe from minor sun exposure?
Lore 2: Skin cancer only affects light-skinned people.
It is true that the risk factors for lighter-toned skin is higher than that for darker-toned skin; in fact, the lighter your skin tone, the greater your risk of skin cancer. That doesn’t mean that dark-tones aren’t impacted by skin cancer - in fact, the prognosis of skin cancer tends to be worse in the dark-skinned population than in the light-skinned population. This is because when skin cancer occurs in people with darker skin pigments, most times it presents at advanced stages where the likelihood of survival is much lower.
Lore 3: Sunscreen is only for light-skinned people - why should I use it?
Let’s look at sunscreen’s mechanism of action - how it works.
Your skin is a barrier to many harmful things, but it is not a complete barrier against the sun - the UV rays have complete and direct access to your body. Over time, the effect of the sun’s UV rays on your skin is similar to the damage sunlight causes to walls, cars, curtains, and anything else constantly exposed to the sun.* That said, exposure to the sun gives way to reduced elasticity, and both deep and surface level skin damage.
That’s where sunscreen comes in - it acts as a barrier that protects your natural barrier (your skin) against UV rays that would otherwise age and damage your body. Depending on the type of sunscreen:
- The UV rays are either absorbed by the sunscreen barrier and then penetrate your skin as heat, or
- The UV rays are reflected off your body by the sunscreen barrier and do not penetrate your skin at all.
Either way, the way sunscreen works makes it so that the long-term harmful effects of being in the sun is drastically minimised - for all skin tones!
Dark-toned skin is better at sun protection than light-toned skin - there’s no denying this. However, having melanin doesn’t mean you’re immune to skin cancer. To all the dark-skinned South Africans out there (and the light-skinned ones!), living in a country as sun-exposed as ours puts us at a higher risk of skin cancer; so, choose to keep your skin glowing and protected - choose to be #sunsmart.
Disclaimer: Please note that sunscreen is one part of being #sunsmart - use it in conjunction with sunhats, sunglasses, and sun-avoidance between 10am and 4pm.
*If you would like a more technical explanation of this, put a request in the comments!
References available on request.
