Health effects from solar UV radiation

Solar UV radiation is a ubiquitous challenge to life on earth, and to human health in particular. As UV radiation does not penetrate any deeper than the skin, this organ has to be specifically well adapted. It even exploits UV radiation for a beneficial effect: the formation of vitamin D3. Our day-to-day exposure suffices for the latter effect. Overexposure mainly contributes to adverse effects, such as the formation of skin cancer and the suppression of immunity against infections. Chronic UV exposure is further suspected to affect the eyes, e.g. through the formation of cataracts. A depletion of stratospheric ozone is expected to increase these adverse effects on human health. Virtually nothing is known about the quantitative impacts of this depletion on infections and very little about its impact on eye afflictions, but quantitative estimates of increases in skin carcinomas can be made. As a first approximation, squamous cell carcinomas are expected to increase ultimately by 3%, and basal cell carcinomas by 1.7%, for each per cent of lasting ozone depletion.