Ultraviolet radiation from the sun causes a considerable global disease burden

This new report from the WHO, Environmental Burden of Disease-series 13, , Global Burden of Disease of Solar Ultraviolet Radiation estimates that up to 60,000 deaths a year worldwide are caused by too much exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Of those 60,000 deaths, an estimated 48,000 are caused by malignant melanomas, and 12,000 by skin carcinomas.
The new WHO report is the first-ever systematic examination of the global health burden due to UVR. It investigates nine adverse health outcomes from excess UVR exposure. The main three, which cause the greatest burden of disease from UVR, are cutaneous malignant melanomas, and non-melanoma skin cancers developing in different cell layers of the skin (squamous cell carcinomas and basal cell carcinomas). In addition, UVR causes sunburn, skin photoageing, cortical cataracts (eye lens opacities), pterygium (a fleshy growth on the surface of the eye), reactivation of herpes of the lip (cold sores) and the rare squamous cell carcinomas of the eye.