The head of one of the nation’s leading vitamin D research non-profits has blasted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for failing to acknowledge any positive effects of UV exposure in an official document calling for input into UV-related policy.

Vitamin D Council founder Dr. John Cannell — in public comments to CDC’s call for information for a report it’s preparing on skin cancer prevention — called for CDC to include research on the positive effects of sunlight.

“This document entirely disregards the role of sunlight in making vitamin D,” Cannell wrote. “In fact, vitamin D is not mentioned in the document. The importance of vitamin D in human health is hard to overstate.”

Cannell – who cited specific studies for CDC to consider — was upset that the agency did not point out that many studies now demonstrate a reduced risk of internal cancers with sunlight exposure.

“When the author talks about the association of sunlight with non-melanoma skin cancer, he fails to discuss the increased risk of 12 internal cancers that are associated with reduced sunlight exposure,” Cannell wrote.

The American Suntanning Association has called for the suntanning community to demand that CDC hold public meetings to discuss this report prior to its preparation, including qualified scientists from different disciplines. CDC is collecting public comment through Sept. 4.

Click here for instructions for submitting comments to the CDC.

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