As people are planning a mini-vacation with the Memorial Day Weekend coming up, experts are warning against exposure to the sun for too long, especially given the fact that melanoma causes 75 percent of deaths related to skin cancer.
Thus, people should use the necessary protection at all times in order to prevent getting this painful disease. Currently there are about 100,000 people diagnosed with skin melanoma in the United States.
Lindsay Turner, a representative of the Mid-South division of the American Cancer Society stated that a fifth of the children living in the U.S. will develop a form of skin cancer or another at a certain point in the future.
The hot weather often sends people off to the beach or at the pool and, as time flies when you’re having fun, you often tend to forget about protecting your skin accordingly.
Especially children should be taken extra care of when talking about sun exposure. They enjoy water and don’t really care about skin problems, but they are not to be neglected, especially since they are known to be more sensitive to all these factors.
Dr. Brian Gastman explains that when a child is exposed to sun rays for a long period of time, the effects on him or her are about the same as when he or she starts smoking at 14.
However, Americans seem to be careless about the effects of sun exposure. A study published this week by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology revealed that only 30 percent of women and 14 percent of men out of the 4000 surveyed protect their face with sun lotions.
Moreover, most people are perfectly unaware whether their sun cream offers any protection against ultraviolet radiation. A large number of the people surveyed said that they rarely use any protection.
These surveys were conducted after a study from Consumer Reports revealed that one in three sunscreens fail to offer the protection their labels advertise.
Tanning salons are even worse, according to skin experts. Studies showed that people who choose tanning indoors are 74 percent more at risk of developing melanoma than the ones who only get a tan outdoors.
Wherever you choose to get them, tans are the effect of dangerous ultraviolet radiation. A tan basically equals skin cell damage. And if you are lucky enough not to get skin cancer, your skin will still be exposed to premature ageing.
May 22nd was Don’t Fry Day, which represents an opportunity to campaign against long-term sun exposure and help people prevent getting skin cancer.
People are advised to avoid sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and never leave home without using sunscreen in the hot season, even if they are not headed to the beach.
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