Skin Aging & Air Pollution
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Skin aging can be attributed to intrinsic and environmental factors. The intrinsic factors begin with an aging program in DNA that we cannot avoid. Some people are blessed with good genes that allow them to look younger longer as long as they pursue a healthy lifestyle. Others are not so lucky and develop gray hair and skin wrinkling earlier in life. Sex hormones play an important role in maintaining a youthful skin conditions and skin aging accelerates with decreased hormone production..
The two worst environmental aging factors are smoking and sunlight. The third large factor is nutrition; bad food choices over a lifetime can accelerate skin aging and add a variety of disease conditions that spoil skin appearance. Photoaging is becoming more important as people live longer with increased sun exposure associated with leisure time, outdoor recreational sports, sun bathing and holes in the ozone layer. Photodamage begins in infancy - 50% of an individual's ultraviolet light exposure occurs before the age of 18 years. An epidemic of the most dangerous skin cancer, malignant melanoma is already underway. Some predict that skin cancer will become the most common type of cancer and malignant melanoma will become the leading cause of death from skin cancer.
Skin Effects of Air Pollution (Goldsmith, NAPE Conference )
Skin cancer is increasing, with an estimated 1 million new cases being diagnosed
and 9,100 people dying of skin cancer in 1993 in the United States. Most skin cancer
deaths are from melanoma skin cancers, and 33,000 melanomas were diagnosed in 1993. The
most common skin cancers are basal cell carcinoma (76%), squamous cell carcinoma (19%),
and melanoma (5%). Skin cancers are most closely associated with exposure to ultraviolet B
irradiation (UV-B). Depletion of the ozone layer allows harmful amounts of UV-B to
reach biological systems, where it is believed to cause serious genetic damage.
Specifically, UV-B impairs the ability of damaged DNA to repair itself. Two species of
frogs in Oregon are declining in significant numbers, possibly because of a diminished
capacity to repair UV-B and UV-C genetic injuries subsequent to regional depletion of the
ozone layer, which has been observed.
Ozone is the primary stratospheric component that absorbs UV-B. Researchers assert that
for every 1% decrease in ozone, there will be a 2% increase in UV-B irradiance, and
therefore a 2% increase in skin cancer may be predicted. The atmospheric pollution by
ozone-depleting chemicals, such as some combustion products of fossil fuels and
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), is a major concern for physicians because it is predicted that
the ozone layer will remain diminished for decades, even after CFCs are replaced by
non-ozone depleting substitutes. The banning and prevention of these pollutants is
important. Most of a person's lifetime UV-B exposure occurs before age 18, so the
educational emphasis should be on children and their parents. Early skin cancer detection
screening programs will require additional physician effort.
UV-B is a strong immunosuppressive agent, and therefore, may have very significant systemic effects related to the release of immunologically active molecules from the skin. These molecules include the alpha tumor necrosis factor ('-TNF) and cis-urocanic acid, which produce immunosuppressive effects such as depression of delayed hypersensitivity, suppression of T-lymphocytes, and activation of cutaneous herpes simplex infections.
The skin is a portal of entry for substances capable of causing injury. Of particular importance is the hazard from occupational exposure to pesticides (e.g., chlordane), cutting oils used by machinists, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the soil, topical drugs, and cosmetics. For example, it was estimated that 75% of the daily dose of pyrene -- a surrogate for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) -- received by Netherlands coke plant workers was absorbed through their skin. This observation led to redirecting efforts toward decreasing the skin dose rather than the inhaled dose of pyrene. More precise modeling of percutaneous exposure is needed to determine its importance in the absorption of many materials, as well as better protective measures for those who will be exposed to hazardous pollutants. In the future, it will probably be necessary to modify many industrial processes as a primary preventive step to decrease exposure to these toxic substances. -- Lowell Goldsmith, MD, American Academy of Dermatology
See Ultra Violet light exposure. Skin Aging Abstracts
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