An estimate of premature cancer mortality in the U.S. due to inadequate doses of solar ultraviolet‐B radiation

There are large geographic gradients in mortality rates for a number of cancers in the U.S. (e.g., rates are approximately twice as high in the northeast compared with the southwest). Risk factors such as diet fail to explain this variation. Previous studies have demonstrated that the geographic distributions for five types of cancer are related inversely to solar radiation. The purpose of the current study was to determine how many types of cancer are affected by solar radiation and how many premature deaths from cancer occur due to insufficient ultraviolet (UV)-B radiation.

UV-B data for July 1992 and cancer mortality rates in the U.S. for between 1970-1994 were analyzed in an ecologic study.