CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
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CITY GUIDE >Culture and Events
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When sun's no fun
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-27 09:18
 Sunny weather over the just-past public Bank Holiday weekend in Britain brought thousands of sun worshippers to seaside resorts and attractions across the country, as temperatures hit 26 C, the warmest day so far this year. But many may have been risking their health, with cancer charities warning that skin cancer rates have risen dramatically in the past few years. The annual Southend Airshow in southeast England brought thousands to the coast to enjoy the spectacle of military jets and acrobatic teams. Indulging in ice-creams, drinking beer and eating sandwiches in the May sunshine, few took the precaution of using sun block. Despite warnings from cancer charities, few people heeded the advice and instead attempted to take advantage of the occasional sunny weather to obtain a tan. English playwright and composer Noel Coward once summed up the quintessentially British attitude to high temperatures in his 1932 song Mad Dogs and Englishmen, describing his countrymen as "impervious to heat". Indeed, the British are crazy for hot and sunny temperatures. Lying on the grassy banks at Southend were topless men and women who were attempting to top up their tans, some wearing little more than shorts and a bikini. The only apparent use of sun block was by young children, who were liberally daubed with the protective lotion by parents who had little or no thought for their own protection. All shady areas were noticeably empty, as families packed into every available space blasted by the intense brightness of the sun. In 1977, around 3.4 people per 100,000 were diagnosed with skin cancer. But this figure had quadrupled by 2006. |
