Anti-sun Message "Needs Re-think"

Many Australians are deficient in a vital nutrient derived from sunlight and skin cancer campaigns may have to be reconsidered, a researcher warns.

Professor Caryl Nowson of Deakin University in Victoria, whose research is published in today"s Medical Journal of Australia, says the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Australia appears to be much higher than previously thought.

Her research found almost 23 per cent of women and 76 per cent of nursing home residents have a marginal vitamin D deficiency.

But 80 per cent of dark-skinned, veiled and pregnant women had a more serious deficiency. The children of veiled women were also at risk.

Vitamin D deficiency can contribute to the brittle bone disease osteoporosis, and Dr Nowson says it is time to devise a more appropriate health message.

She concludes: “We need to balance the need for sunshine against the risk of skin cancer.”

Rather than fortifying foods with vitamin D, Dr Nowson says giving high-risk groups vitamin supplements and increasing their exposure to the sun should be considered.

Her research comes less than three months after another study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found rural residents suffered fewer fractures through osteoporosis because of their increased exposure to sunlight.

Sydney Morning Herald, 5 August