Today’s big topic: Young people use the UV index to get an extra dose of dangerous rays
A new survey from Voxmeter shows that 62 percent of women ages 15 to 20 deliberately seek out high UV index readings to “optimize” their UV exposure. That can have fatal consequences, the Danish Cancer Society warns.
What’s happening?
The UV index is meant as a warning about the sun’s harmful rays. But more than half of all young people treat a high UV reading as a prompt to rush outside and sunbathe.
UV radiation increases the risk of skin cancer and melanoma, and if you spend a lot of time in the sun, you face a higher risk. According to the Danish Cancer Society’s measurements of Danes’ sun habits, young people are the ones who both sunbathe and get sunburned the most, even though their skin is the most vulnerable.
»UV radiation is more harmful the younger you are. That is partly because sun damage in your younger years has many years to potentially develop into cancer, and partly because the skin is more sensitive to UV radiation when it is not fully developed«.
The Danish Cancer Society’s prevention director, Mette Lolk, emphasizes that this is not only about skin cancer – which affects 25,000 Danes each year – but that the sun’s rays also cause wrinkles and pigment spots.
Why it matters!
It’s significant an worrying that the most vulnerable group misunderstands the messages that the Danish Cancer Society has spent years drilling into their sun-scorched bodies?
Brian Køster, a senior researcher who has spent two decades at the Danish Cancer Society, believes there are so many messages circulating that young people end up paralyzed.
»It’s a jungle of misinformation from influencers and people with opinions online. It’s very hard for those of us who want behavioral change. Because the consumer ends up in a situation where they don’t know what to believe. And then they do what they feel like. Because no one wants their behavior restricted«.
Køster wants to make it crystal clear that UV radiation can cause skin cancer. The sun’s radiation creates DNA damage in cells that the body cannot repair if the skin gets more than it can tolerate.
The devilish part is that you absolutely can find studies, Brian Køster says, showing that sunscreen users have more skin cancer. Because it’s tied to behavior. People who don’t sunbathe use less sunscreen, and if you live in a nursing home, you spend less time outside in the sun than if you’re training for an Ironman.
Brian Køster and the Danish Cancer Society advise using sunscreen only on the parts of the body not covered by clothing – especially the head and neck, where a large share of skin cancers occur. And finally, use a sunhat!
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Denmark finally seems to be about to get a government
The record-long government negotiations appear likely to end before long. That is the view of Politiken’s political analyst, Elisabet Svane. »We’re nearing the finish line«, she said. »The whole procession yesterday, with politicians coming and going at Marienborg on a conveyor belt, shows that we’re almost there. And when the Enhedslisten and Alternativet are invited to negotiations twice in the course of a day, it means Socialdemokratiet, Moderaterne, Radikale Venstre and SF are quite far along in their talks«, she said.
It is difficult to say exactly when a new government will see the light of day, but according to Elisabet Svane, the expectation is that the government will be in place before the week is out. »They’ve come so far that they don’t have another week of negotiations left. If that happens, it will be because the talks fall apart«, she said.
–The Danish Regions: More expensive cigarettes and alcohol now
It should be more expensive to buy alcohol and tobacco. That is the view of Danish Regions, the organization that runs Denmark’s health care system. The statement comes after Politiken has documented that Denmark has the highest cancer incidence in the Nordic countries, and after an E.U. report concluded that no other E.U. country has as many people diagnosed with cancer as Denmark does.
In an opinion piece in Politiken, Danish Regions argues that no one under 18 should be able to buy alcohol, that alcohol sold in supermarkets should be subject to a minimum price, and that tobacco and alcohol should therefore be more expensive, though the regions have not settled on a specific price.
–DSB: Fewer and slower trains could mean more trains on time
In an attempt to solve its punctuality problems, DSB is considering changes to its timetables that would lengthen passengers’ travel times and reduce the number of departures. It is a model that has been used on the Coast Line between Copenhagen and Helsingør. There, the trip has been extended by between five and nine minutes, and, according to DSB’s chief executive Flemming Jensen, that has made the route more resilient. Flemming Jensen says that at no point in his 11 years as head of DSB have so few trains run on time.
Talk of town: Jonas Vingegaard took the final step into cycling’s mythic circle of legends
Jonas Vingegaard brought his two children onto the podium with runner-up Felix Gall (left) and third-place finisher Jai Hindley as he was celebrated as the winner of the Giro d’Italia.
Myths are born from the past. That became quite apparant as this year’s Giro D’Italia riders rode past Rome’s historic buildings and temples. Among the riders, one man, dressed in pink, became mythical himself.
Today, it is impossible to predict which particular stories about Jonas Vingegaard will endure once his racing career is over, but one thing is certain: half a century from now – and well beyond – he will be spoken of as one of cycling’s greatest legends.
He is only the eighth rider to have won all three of the so-called Grand Tours – Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia, which has just concluded.
The question, then, is whether it will be the utterly controlled and unusually dominant performance on Italian roads – five stage wins and a margin of more than five minutes over the runner-up, Felix Gall – that people will talk about in the future at cyclists’ café stops on training rides and at home in front of television screens, or whatever those rituals may be called by then. Or whether it will be, above all, the pulverizing of all resistance in the solo attack on the penultimate stage that stands out most in the telling of this triumph.
It may also be that the victory on Stage 18 of the Tour de France in 2022 will be singled out. That was when Jonas Vingegaard dueled with Tadej Pogacar, the Slovenian crashed, and the Danish sportsman waited for his rival, only to break him on Hautacam afterward and win the world’s biggest stage race for the first time.
A fact, in any case, is that he has found his natural place in the company of Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali and Chris Froome, who, in chronological order, are the seven previous riders to complete the great hat trick on two wheels.
Read the full story about Vingegaard’s victory at the Giro D’Italia here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.