How Climate Change Affects Your Skin

Global climate change has already made a significant impact on the environment. With glaciers melting, sea levels rising, extreme weather, and the hottest temperatures on record this past decade. You would think that worldwide we would want to work collectively to combat climate change and despite not being able to stop it completely, at least slow these events.

Unfortunately, a big population of people doesn’t believe in climate change, and those who do acknowledge these changes don’t feel the need to change their lives to save the future of our planet. Many of us remain ignorant of making changes in our lives to combat climate change because we think one small activity we do won’t change anything.

However, human activity is the main cause of climate change, and all of us unitedly do these small things that largely hurt the environment. We need to also be mindful of how it may harm some people more than others. While it may not be advertised this way; people of color, indigenous populations, and those suffering from low socioeconomic status are more affected by climate change due to limited access to health care and systemic racism.

Many don’t view it this way because of their privilege and blissful ignorance. We see the big environmental effects on the news but don’t think it will affect us personally since we’re fortunate not to experience it enough to notice. These environmental changes can even affect our skin and how we need to take care of it. Climate change makes our skin more susceptible to various skin diseases, sunburn, skin aging, and skin cancer, among other issues. The skin is the largest and most exposed organ in the body, meaning it’s prone to these changes in the climate. Global climate change is moving at an extraordinary rate, so it’s important to understand that we need to recognize that climate change is real and it does affect us all.

Skin Cancer

Skin cancer is one of the most common skin diseases with climate change being a component. One of the main causes of skin cancer is the sun’s UV rays, which are increased by the depletion of the ozone layer. One in five people will get skin cancer before the age of 70 and with more UV rays reaching the surface; this will cause about 300,000 additional skin cancer cases. There have been efforts such as 1987, Montreal Protocol, to protect the stratospheric ozone by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances. This was meant to recover the ozone layer over Antarctica by 2060. However, climate change delays ozone recovery by 30 years - proving to bring more cases of skin cancer.

Increasing hot temperatures contribute to the exposure to more UV radiation. We as people tend to go outside more and wear less when the weather gets hotter. When the temperature is higher, UV radiation is more effective in impacting carcinogenesis and rising rates of skin cancer. Aside from those who are outside for pleasure purposes, those who work outdoors and those who live at higher altitudes are at a greater risk.

Inflammatory Skin Disorders

Inflammatory skin disorders like eczema and rosacea are worsened by climate change. While air pollution is more frequently seen as a respiratory issue, it also can cause eczema flares and other inflammatory disorders. Air pollution enters systemic circulation, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and even penetrates the epidermis directly. As a result of air pollution and warmer temperatures, these skin disorders can become more severe and painful. Some bacterial acne may also be increased by more warm and humid environments from climate change. This encourages the skin to be colonized by bacteria and fungi, which thrives in these types of weather conditions.

Infectious Diseases

Climate change has also been linked to the rise of infectious skin diseases. As we said before, warm and humid environments welcome bacteria and fungi to colonize the skin; this is leading specifically to an increase in Lyme disease. These warmer environments allow more tick survival and availability to hosts like deer and mice. Mosquito-borne infections are also said to increase with time as a result of the increased temperature and humidity.

Climate change is very real and is today’s problem. There’s no more delaying it, so let’s be conscious and work together to make small changes to our more harmful daily activities. Also, remember you need to protect your skin from these harmful UV rays with sunscreen daily!