UV RADIATION AND ITS AFFECTS ON SKIN CANCER

UV RADIATION AND ITS AFFECTS ON SKIN CANCER WITHIN THE UNITED STATES DURING 2017 Results Introduction UV radiation has been looked at for years, and Figure 1 demonstrate the amount of UV radiation was occurring around the world starting with zero and increasing to <16 around the equator. For figure 2, the states within the US was analyzed based on Skin cancer case count with the most (yellow) at <821 and the lowest (purple) at <21. has been classified as a “complete carcinogen” due to its role in damaging DNA and initiating tumors (D'Orazio, Jarrett, Amaro. Ortiz and Scott, 2013). Exposure to continuous UV has been shown to cause health risks that include skin cancer but are not limited to. For this project I decided to look into skin cancer and its relationship to UV radiation, however I believed it to have more cases along the states near the equator. Conclusions Data The analysis of UV radiation was determined from NASA Neo though Ozone monitoring instruments and corresponding satellites. Through NASA the average December 2010 of UV radiation was taken (UV Index | NASA, 2020). For Skin Cancer Case Counts, CDC had stats available on the United States relating to cancer Counts during 2017, but with no data for Alaska (USCS Data Visualizations, 2020). Figure 1: UV radiation Averaged for December 2010 from NASA NEO, for the world. Here the purples line up at the equator demonstrating that these locations have more radiation than the rest of the world. The greens, on the other hand, demonstrate low to no UV radiation. Methods UV radiation was achieved by downloading the best quality raster data for UV Index and pasting the data into a Arc. GIS Map to then be formatted for layout as Figure 1 with added legend, scale, and compass. Figure 2 involving skin cancer counts was completed through CDC information and census on the country’s state boundaries. The state bounds were first found followed by Melanomas in the skin of counts and averaged age of occurrence within a table. The table and the raster data for boundaries were placed in Arc. GIS to create the map. The data was provided within a table where attributes had to be joined. Once the tables were joined and symbology picked as quantile, the scale, legend, and compass Figure 2: Skin cancer count during 2017 through CDC analysis and state bounds. The brighter colors show the states with more skin cancer cases while the darker colors show the opposite. The colors do not follow any pattern that can be deciphered through a glance, perhaps further After completing the maps and researching for further understanding of Figure 2, skin cancer doesn’t fully depend on the states closer to the equator- though they do have higher radiation from the sun-but it depends also on the type of skin (Ananthaswamy, 1997). The states in figure 2 demonstrate that by not holding a pattern. The amount of UV does play a role but not as much as the genes relating to skin. Bibliography Ananthaswamy, H. , 1997. Mechanisms of induction of skin cancer by UV radiation. Frontiers in Bioscience, 2(4), pp. d 538 -551. Bureau, U. , 2018. Cartographic Boundary Files Shapefile. [online] The United States Census Bureau. Available at: https: //www. census. gov/geographies/mappingfiles/time-series/geo/carto-boundary-file. html. D'Orazio, J. , Jarrett, S. , Amaro-Ortiz, A. and Scott, T. , 2013. UV Radiation and the Skin. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 14(6), pp. 12222 -12248. Gis. cdc. gov. 2020. USCS Data Visualizations. [online] Available at: https: //gis. cdc. gov/Cancer/USCS/Data. Viz. html. UV Index | NASA. 2020. UV Index | NASA. [online] Available at: https: //neo. sci. gsfc. nasa. gov/view. php? dataset. Id=AUR A_UVI_CLIM_M. Author, Contributors: Maps Created by: Natalie Johnson Date: 10/13/2020 Information provided by sources listed in the