Chart of the Month - September 2024

“Sunbaker” Max Dupain’s 1938 photo captures Australians’ love of the sun. But this love affair has a dark side.

Australia does not lead the world in terms of solar UV exposure but it does lead the world in the incidence of UV-related deaths (see chart below). New data from the ABS suggests why.         

Sunbaker By Max Dupain, National Gallery of Australia

Location, location, location

Given its latitude, Australia is located in the extreme zones for UV radiation (see map below for January - February 2020).

Source: Gunthe, S.S., Swain, B., Patra, S.S. et al. On the global trends and spread of the COVID-19 outbreak: preliminary assessment of the potential relation between location-specific temperature and UV index. J Public Health (Berl.) 30, 219–228 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01279-y

It is also close to the hole in the ozone layer, through which pours increased levels of ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation. UVB is more intense than UVA and is more likely to lead to skin cancer.

While the hole in the ozone layer has shrunk since the first international ban on CFCs in 1987, it has not shrunk as much as you may think as the blue in the chart below shows. Thus, southern hemisphere countries in the lower latitudes bear the brunt of UVB radiation.