Make sure you stay ‘sun safe’ this summer
With summer coming up, and May being National Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention month, it’s important to remember how to enjoy the summer sun and at the same time keep yourself and your family safe.
Because of the sun’s position closer to the earth and the long summer days, summer can be a time of excessive exposure to the sun’s damaging rays.
When it comes to damage from the sun, the most important rays are ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation. The sun also emits stronger ultraviolet C (UVC) radiation but, fortunately, most of this is filtered out by the atmosphere.
Although the warm summer sun makes it enjoyable to be outside during most of the day, the truth is, both in the short term and over time, without protection, the sun’s rays will cause damage and problems with your skin.
In the short term, we all know the discomfort of a sunburn, and blistering sunburns are a major risk factor for the development of skin cancer, especially melanoma. In the long term, excessive sun exposure places you at increased risk for all forms of skin cancer, as well as photo aging, including increased wrinkling, red and brown spots on the skin and poor skin texture.
The two best ways to protect yourself from UVA and UVB radiation from the sun are sun protection/sun avoidance and sunscreen. While we can’t completely avoid the sun if we are outside, there are things we can do to reduce excessive exposure. Mostly this involves seeking shady places, rather than sitting in direct sunlight.
When one has to be outside in direct sunlight, it is important to apply sunscreen over all exposed skin. When choosing sunscreen, the first factor to consider is the sunscreen’s SPF number, which tells you how well the sunscreen blocks UVB radiation from the sun.
UVB rays are the rays most responsible for sunburn. The general recommendation is at least SPF 30, which means the sunscreen allows you to stay in the sun 30 times longer without sunburn than with no sunscreen at all.
The other important factor, however, is protection from UVA rays, which contribute to skin photo damage, premature aging and skin cancer development. The SPF does not relate to UVA rays, so it is important to choose a sunscreen that has “broad spectrum” UVA and UVB protection.
Often the best sunscreens contain either zinc or titanium, which are elements that provide a physical blockage of the sun’s damaging rays, and are less likely to create an allergic reaction as compared to the chemical sunscreens, which contain chemicals such as avobenzone or homosalate, which act to absorb photo energy.
Inevitably, of course, most of us do receive a little too much sun exposure from time to time, and we get occasional sunburns throughout our life, so it is important to be able to detect any sign of skin cancer as early as possible. When detected early, skin cancer is usually very treatable. The signs to look for include any persistent scaly, crusting skin growths, non-healing sores and moles, which have irregular symmetry, borders and colors.
Ultimately, the best prevention and early detection comes from a regular annual skin screening exam from either your primary doctor or a board-certified dermatologist.
M. DAVID COLE, M.D., is with Horizon Dermatology and Aesthetics in Newport Beach.