The Relationship Between Skin Cancer, Climate Change, and Its Associated Behaviors: A Systematic Review
Rebecca He
Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn, United States
Publication date: June 15, 2025
Stuyvesant High School, Brooklyn, United States
Publication date: June 15, 2025
DOI: http://doi.org/10.34614/JIYRC2025I22
ABSTRACT
Skin cancer is one of the most common yet preventable types of cancer worldwide. Recently, climate change has cemented itself as a global crisis and resulted in increasing ultraviolet radiation (UVR) levels known to initiate skin cancer. Due to the profound effects this may have on skin health, this systematic review aims to more explicitly correlate climate change and its associated behaviors with skin cancer. Online databases like Google Scholar and PubMed were searched with terms to ensure specificity before they were narrowed to a total of 18 articles. It was concluded that changing temperatures and UVR levels as a result of climate change had a tremendous impact on skin cancer development, while the effects of air pollution were inconclusive. It was also demonstrated that the role climate change plays in shifting human behavior can also influence an individual’s exposure to the sun and, therefore, the incidence of skin cancer.
Skin cancer is one of the most common yet preventable types of cancer worldwide. Recently, climate change has cemented itself as a global crisis and resulted in increasing ultraviolet radiation (UVR) levels known to initiate skin cancer. Due to the profound effects this may have on skin health, this systematic review aims to more explicitly correlate climate change and its associated behaviors with skin cancer. Online databases like Google Scholar and PubMed were searched with terms to ensure specificity before they were narrowed to a total of 18 articles. It was concluded that changing temperatures and UVR levels as a result of climate change had a tremendous impact on skin cancer development, while the effects of air pollution were inconclusive. It was also demonstrated that the role climate change plays in shifting human behavior can also influence an individual’s exposure to the sun and, therefore, the incidence of skin cancer.
