Irish city dwellers have higher skin cancer risk, study shows

RESIDENTS IN Dublin and Cork and some coastal counties are most at risk of developing skin cancer, new research has found.

Three parts of the Irish coast – Kerry, Mayo and Donegal – were also identified in the study of skin cancer in Ireland by the National Cancer Registry and published yesterday by the British Journal of Dermatology.

The study examined geographical and socio-economic differences between incidences of the two most common forms of skin cancer over a 10-year period.

Sun exposure is the main risk for the two cancers studied. Basal cell carcinoma is more associated with occasional sun exposure and sunburn; squamous cell carcinoma more with outdoor workers and long-term exposure.

These non-melanoma skin cancers are much less dangerous and less fatal when compared with the rarer melanoma skin cancer.

The most affluent people were significantly more at risk of developing basal cell cancer than those in the most deprived areas, the study found.

Those living in cities such as Dublin, Cork, Galway and Waterford and some coastal areas in the south and west had a much higher rates of basal cell cancer than those in rural areas.

Women in cities were at 48 per cent higher risk and men in cities were at 35 per cent higher risk than their rural counterparts.

However, the squamous cell cancer was most prevalent in coastal areas in the south, west and northeast. It was also more common among men living in rural and farming communities.

Risk among affluent and urban people could be higher because they were more likely to take foreign holidays and had greater access to sunbeds, the report suggested. A tendency for more affluent people to move from cities to coastal areas later in life was a possible explanation given for higher coastal cancer incidents.

Geographical variations in the intensity of detection could also play a part, the report said.