Burning from the inside.

We redheads have a much higher risk of skin cancer, but the exact reason for that has never been established. Now researchers right here in Durham believe they have found the answer.

[Duke professor John Simon's] team, along with colleagues from at the Funjita Health University in Japan, used a special microscope and an ultraviolet (UV) laser to see what was happening to the pigment-containing structures in hair, called melanosomes, from redheads and black-haired people.

They measured something called the oxidation potential of the red and black melanosomes. This is how likely chemicals are to activate oxygen by taking up electrons. Such changes are known to be linked to cell damage and cancer. They found that the red melanosomes were much more reactive than the black melanosomes. This would suggest that it takes less of a trigger, namely UV rays in sunlight, to make potentially harmful cellular changes in people with red hair.

Professor Simon explained: "Activating oxygen can produce compounds called radicals that put oxidative stress on cells. Such stress could ultimately lead to cancer and other diseases." He said his work "links the red pigments to possible oxidative stress through their electrochemical properties."

Being armed with this knowledge doesn't really lend any additional protection against contracting skin cancer, but at least I know who to blame. Stupid oxygen.