ABSTRACT
The Sun and Humans in the Past 72
Experimental Evidence of Beneficial and Harmful Effects of
Solar Radiation 74
UV-B, the Bad Guy 75
Experimental Evidence for UV-A Induced Damages 76
Why Anti-UV-A Sunscreens? 76
Anti-UV-B and Anti-UV-A Sunscreens 77
Beyond SPF 78
The Future: New Strategies for Defense 79
The Future: New Aggressors? 80
References 80
Life expectancy in Europe and North America has increased by a factor of 3 in
the last three centuries. One of the paradoxical consequences of increasing life
span has been that chronic exposure to small, not immediately life-threatening
insults accumulates as physiological changes later in life, which are unpleasant
at best and life-threatening at worst. This is particularly true for the changes
provoked by solar radiation.
