THE RATE of deaths from skin cancer has more than tripled in England and Wales since the 1960s, prompting experts yesterday to urge sunbathers to cover up rather than rely on sunscreen products.

Recent figures show that holidays in the sun and the desire to look tanned have, over the past 40 years, taken their toll in lives.

In a five-year period from 1960, there were 842 deaths from skin cancer among men in England and Wales - an average of 168 a year. But in the five years from 1995, that number shot up to 4,060 - an annual average of 812, or nearly five times that of the years before widespread package holidays.

Women's deaths between the same two periods more ...