If a picture is worth a thousand words, a special type of photography may be more powerful than any lecture or educational campaign in convincing you of the dangers of sun bathing.
In a recent study published in March 2005 in the Archives of Dermatology, researchers studied the impact of showing UV-filtered photographs to 146 college-aged Californians. One month after seeing the hidden damage that sun exposure had caused, the use of sunscreens by the test subjects increased significantly.
When a UV filter is placed on an ordinary camera, photos will show the amount of damage that the sun has already caused to your skin. The filtered UV light is absorbed by the areas of the skin where there is more melanin, a pigment that is produced to prevent skin damage. The difference between a normal and UV photograph can be quite striking. Freckles, wrinkles and lines caused suddenly appear, making a beautiful, young girl with clear skin look old and speckled.
Regular Photo
 | UV-Filtered Photo
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Samples of UV-filtered photos of two young women. |
The idea behind this study was to see if the appearance shown by UV photography can scare tanners into the shade. To date, health-related warnings have done little to lower the rate of skin cancer.
"If you take these photographs, they can see that it's not that they will have damage to their skin at some point in the future," said Heike Mahler, professor of psychology at California State University.
Copyright 2009 NBC Health
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