Subject:      Re: "tanned" skin = unhealthy skin?
From:         ed@crl.com (Ed Anderson)
Date:         1995/07/16
Message-Id:   <3u9o24$crm@nntp.crl.com>
References:   <DBA855.2F3@cruzio.com>
Followup-To:  alt.support.skin-diseases
Organization: large. http://www.crl.com/~ed
Newsgroups:   sci.med,alt.support.skin-diseases,alt.support.skin-diseases.psoriasis

There is apparently a science to the application of UV to the skin as
dermatologists use this method for the treatment of psoriasis and other
skin diseases.  The exposure is tailored to each individual and used in
conjunction with drugs that sensitize the skin to UV.  This contolled
tanning/erythema is monitored by trained medical personnel. 

I would like to know how dermatologists compute the risk/benefit tradeoff.

A while back, I found an NIH consensus report online with a lot of good
information including the basis for some of the ozone damage projections
and suggestions for sun exposure risk reduction.  The file is rather long
so rather than posting it, I will provide some pointers: 

National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement:

SUNLIGHT, ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION, AND THE SKIN,   May 8-10, 1989
http://text.nlm.nih.gov/nih/cdc/www/74.html         also at
ftp://ftp.crl.com/users/ed/ed/willcall/skin-uv.txt  (41k)

Another related report at the NIH site:

DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF EARLY MELANOMA,   January 27-29, 1992
http://text.nlm.nih.gov/nih/cdc/www/88cvr.html

The table of contents is at: http://text.nlm.nih.gov/nih/nih.html
Thank you NIH, this is a great resource.  Is full MEDLINE coming soon?

For readers in the alt.support.skin-diseases groups, please read the
entire (long) thread in sci.med before posting any follow-ups there. 

-- ed