This is What a Lifetime of Sunshine Can do to Truckers

11 years, 10 months ago - 13 June 2012, Autoblog
This is What a Lifetime of Sunshine Can do to Truckers
This picture of a 69-year-old trucker in The New England Journal of Medicine is striking. You can clearly see the effects of his 28-year career behind the wheel, with each wrinkle plotted out across his skin like a road map.

The left side of his face got this way due to sun exposure, what those dermatologists who read NEJM call dermatoheliosis, a "thickening and wrinkling of the skin."

But what's really surprising is to see the full image of both sides of his face, and just how different the right side looks. Since UVA rays pass through window glass, those long hours in the saddle led to enough sun exposure to cause the more pronounced skin damage, according to the report.

Northwestern University dermatologist Jennifer Gordon, who is treating the man, told Fox News that he didn't wear sunscreen. Fortunately, the man has not yet developed skin cancer, according to the report. To keep yourself from winding up with similar skin damage, the American Academy of Dermatology suggests using sunscreen with at least an SPF 30 rating. And to this trucker, might we suggest considering evening out his skin's fortunes behind the wheel of a big rig in Australia?