Introduction

In May 1981, Jamaican Singer and Guitarist Robert Nesta Marley OM; popularly known as Bob Marley passed away due to a serious skin cancer disease. He was diagnosed with a cancer called acral lentiginous melanoma, a cancer found in areas on your fingers, palms, or toes. Since the skin cancer was shielded under his left toe, people believed that it wasn’t due to the sunlight and some people started to speculate that it came from the lack of sunlight into how he got his cancer. This is how people get their claims of there being different factors other than overexposure and UV Radiation, and this medical intuitive from Suggart, Germany is no different. In 2009,  Andreas Mortiz’s “Sunlight Doesn’t Cause Skin Cancer, but Sunscreen Does” is an interview by Reana Morgan on IHealthTube where Andreas Moritz –who studied for 40 years in alternative medicine– addressed a few claims on the matter of sunscreen’s correlation with skin cancer. Presently, the claim he is defending is very absurd in itself, but it also a very popular claim on social media. The overall claim is that sunlight itself from the sun does not encourage skin cancer, but contributing factors like the lack of sunlight suns, failure to tan, and low Vitamin D are the main culprits of the increased rate of skin cancer.

1. The Lack of Sunlight Is Not the Main Reason For Skin Cancer

Moritz opens by saying in this first claim that it is not the contact of sunlight that causes cancer, but the inability to be out in the sun for long periods, claiming that “in fact, its the opposite [and] the lack of sunscreen causes cancer” (0:17). Furthermore, he believes that people in the countries with the highest UV radiation contain the highest skin cancer rate percentage. This claim is not backed up by evidence and has not really been added upon. He does not reference any studies and he does not add anything to it. He claims that different countries where there is sun have a less likely chance of skin cancer. No shown posts support this claim so it just stands by itself. This type of pattern of misinformation is a correlation-causation fallacy, a cause-and-effect fallacy between the like things. For this instance, its inactivity connects to the contact of the Sun. Yet while his claim is wrong that the lack of sunshine is not the factor that causes skin cancer, there has been some showing that people have skin cancer in places not being covered by the sun. 

Either way, there is evidence that what he is saying is not very true. The experts of a MAP_∞ article display the average states that get the most solar radiation per square meter. The hottest ones being places in states such as Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and Florida. This is significant to know because this goes in hand with a study made by the American Cancer Society. The website displays each state with UV-attributable cases of melanoma (known as skin cancer) in both sexes in the United States. It also goes with the study, though Moritz is right that it is possible to receive skin cancer in the lower UV index states, they are not the highest and it is compared to states like California and Florida. Colder places with less sunlight like Minnesota are because there are more sightings of outdoor activities like going to the beaches, lakes, or ponds. Another cause is also insufficient sun protection. This disproves the overall claim of Moritz with the cause being the overall lack of sunlight, but its with the sun protection.

Average solar radiation per square meter

Each US state with the attributable cases

2. Tanning Is Not a “Natural Protection” For Your Skin

What the claim is saying is that the body will make the indication that it is getting too much sunlight. Still, when the sunlight exposure is increased a few times per day, it turns into tanning: “If you start increasing your sun exposure little by little, you will have a natural protection in your skin which is called tanning” (Moritz 2:05). Tanning is what he claims is a natural protection of the skin. He defends this by saying that “he lived in Cyprus for 15 years” […] very warm sunlight, I can stay as long as I want in it.” (Moritz 2:17). He also agrees when the interviewer, Reana Morgan says “[t]he sunscreen is just a good tan” (2:33). This is very strange because he also never gives up evidence or a study that tanning is superior to the sunscreen in any way. Most people of the 1900s would have agreed, as shown by the article of LOOKFANTASTIC, people in the 1920s to 1940s would have agreed to his claim to those terms because it was advertised by popular people during that time like Coco Chanel.

But ever since then, people have grown to refute the fashion trend of tanning and try to expose it as a sham that it is. the experts at Cancer Research UK present that UVA and UVB “can damage the DNA in our skin cells. […]If enough DNA damage builds up over time, it can cause cells to grow out of control, which can lead to skin cancer.” This is important to know because this is shown in all the possible solutions so skin cancer is prevented or least likely to occur. One of which was ironically the use of sunscreen. 

Presentation on how the sun penetrates to cause melanoma

An article shown by the Skin Cancer Foundation presents that worldwide, the exponential growth of melanoma cases is caused by indoor tanning, which is more than the growth of people getting lung cancer cases from cigarettes. An article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that “cigarettes are linked with 80% to 90% of lung cancer deaths.” The foundation website is not the only one to make the claim that continuous sun exposure to “tanning” has an unhealthy effect on your skin and leads to the illusion of your skin aging for, people of different social media like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram claim that tanning has a negative effect on your skin cells.

3. The Chemicals in the Sunscreen Does Not Cause Skin Cancer

The claim is that when people go outside, it gives a lot of penetration of UVA and UVB, and the body signals that it is getting too much. But when it does not give that signal, it causes melanoma and Vitamin D deficiency by being in the Sun. This claims that Vitamin D has a link with skin cancer. Out of all of his claims, this one is backed up by evidence from the study made at Creighton University stating that “77% of skin cancers can be reversed by having normal Vitamin D levels” (Moritz 1:34) and that with “Vitamin D, your cancer risk goes right up” (Moritz 1:31). He also claims that the chemicals block signals to the UV rays because people are slathering too much on your body, making the vitamin D nutrients rub off of your body. He is completely right that low Vitamin D increases the cancer risk from the body.

But like most of his claims, they are not exactly true. A study from the Cleveland Clinic displays that people can get enough vitamin D from being in the Sun. While he was right about that, it is not the reason sunscreen not getting the signals, it is from having darker skin or old and wrinkly skin. An article from the National Institute of Health describes the average of Vitamin D levels. The normal level of Vitamin D is 20 nanograms per liter (ng/L), Anything bigger or smaller than that can lead to major health conditions. After searching different articles on the Creighton University website,  it did not present any information about the link of melanoma to Vitamin D levels. Finally, an article from Harvard Medical School directs an Australian study that sunscreen “showed no difference in Vitamin D between adults.” The author of the Harvard Medical School claims that normally, very few people overuse sunscreen so the effect that sunscreen has on the Vitamin D is almost negligible.

4. Andreas Moritz

To explain this overall claim from the author we must look at the author, Andreas Moritz himself, and examine what has made him create and spread the claims shown. Andreas Moritz was born in Suggart, Germany in 1954. He lived with illnesses at an early age which compelled him to move into the nutrition field and a few years later said he was known to be a “practitioner of Iridology, Ayurveda, Shiatsu, an artist and an author.” Overall, his intentions are always to give nutrition to kids and adults who are less fortunate than him. He also made a non-profit organization called Andreas Moritz Light Trust, where anyone who buys his book Art of Self-Healing will get their money donated to the non-profit organization.

While he sounds like an amazing and innocent man, he is not as reliable after spectating the things he did.  While he says that he would like assistance to people in need with his non-profit organization, we do not really see any proof or evidence of ever doing such. Also, the places that he studied into are not back up with reliable information of it actually working. Shiatsu is shown to be the only one actually shown to improve. This presents that medicine like iridology; a medical technique claiming to show a patient’s health from the color and pattern of the iris, is not backed up to be reliable. This is the same with Ayurveda, a traditional medicine from India. The most important debunking is the other ridiculous claims from the various books he published. Mr. Moritz made books like Cancer Is Not a Disease!: It’s a Survival Mechanism, Ending the AIDS Myth and Vaccine-nation: Poisoning the Population, One Shot at a Time just to name a few. These Books can be found inside of the Enerchi Wellness Center and Amazon. This is significant to know because the presence of these ridiculous claims overall dwindles the full reliability of Andreas Moritz, and it actually does not stop at just the books he has made. Overall he may seem like a good guy, but he is not the person you should look to for information about skin cancer or cancer in general.

5. Enerchi.com

Enerchi.com is a website that Andreas Moritz owned before his passing on Oct. 21, 2012. This website has a store to buy visual arts that claim to restore energy throughout the body. He also sells products like Organic Crystals, Kidney Cleanse, Ener-Chi Ionized Stones, and the Squatty Potty. He also has crazy videos of his Interviews that are similar to the sunscreen claim:  Heart Attacks Are not Random, Cancer Cures Itself, Why Certain People Get Cancer, and Humans Are Not Made to Eat Meat just to name a few. To shine a light on Moritz, with his videos he is not always trying to be informative. He tries to challenge the viewers with a claim he would like to debate with.

Enerchi is a play on words of energy and chi which are not what is shown on the website. While searching through the reviews of Enerchi Health And Wellness all of his products, it is to say confidently that there is no positive feedback or any genuine proof that any of his products actually work or is frequently used in everyday life. With all of those claims being said, they are just as crazy as the sunscreen-causing skin cancer video. This shows that Enerchi is not very reliable for most of its claims. While his interviews are from the same lady, there other people that he gets interviewed by before his passing like the expansion of Cancer is Not a Disease. These ridiculous claims really keep the whole website from being reliable.

Conclusion

This issue is very relevant because people are still debating about it on social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. It is quite helpful to address and understand the usage of sunscreen and even though it has chemicals it’s important to not get sunburnt. Cancer is a serious matter and we want fewer people to die from it and live long-term and peaceful lives. The best strategy to do if a claim like this is presented is to not be easily swayed and lean into this misinformation is to do the research yourself. Or forget the research, go outside, and have fun. But just remember: Put on your sunscreen!

Editors Note: Featured image is from the video “Sunlight Doesn’t Cause Skin Cancer, but Sunscreen Does”