Marshmellow Fluff

I grew up in the sun. 

Weekends were filled with boogie boarding, laying out on the beach and running through sprinklers.  I  am a red-head tempered by being half-Mexican which means I can get away with wearing no sunscreen at all and not burn too badly.  This doesn’t mean I haven’t had my share of cripsy moments as a child.  I’ve had my share of Rudolph  nosed moments, painful shoulder burns and I’ve peeled dead skin off my back more then a dozen times.  As a child the sun wasn’t the enemy we know it to be today.  Parents weren’t as concerned over sun damage.  My mom and grandma grew up lying in their backyards on tin foil and slathered in baby oil.  The sun was dangerous back then and now it is much worse.  Because of pollutants in the atmosphere and the excess in which humans live, the ozone is depleting at a rapid rate.  People are more concerned than ever with the harmful rays let off by the sun and what that means for our future health.  It is scary to know that it only takes one severe burn during childhood to double the risk of cancer in adulthood.

I work in a hospital and with that comes health information by the bucket load.  I am a self-reformed hypochandriac, although I still have my medical freak out moments here and there.  Sometimes the information I read and dismiss and some I take to heart.  This morning I learned a little more about sun protection that I thought was important to take note of.

The first and most important point is that sunscreen is not regulated.  This means a lot of the sunscreen you apply isn’t doing what it claims to.  I thought as long as I didn’t turn any shade in the pink spectrum, it meant my sunscreen was working.  This is not the case at all.  There are 2 types of sun rays UVA and UVB.  UVA rays are the rays that turn us pink, UVB rays are the rays that penetrate deep into our skin and don’t show in redness.  These are the rays that are responsible for 90% of our skins aging/wrinkles and the ones that cause melanoma.  Ninety percent of wrinkles are caused by the sun and just 10% is by again.    So…there went my belief that going to the tanning salon was better because I never turned red or burned.  You can slather on as much sunscreen as you want but as long as it doesn’t protect you from UVB rays, you may as well not use anything at all.  And for those who think a t-shirt protects you from the sun, a thin white t shirt has the sun protection factor of only about 4%.

I thought the greatest invention ever was spray-sunscreen.  Obviously I am exaggerating here because the greatest invention ever is ice cream, however spray sunscreen ranked high up on the list.  Spray sunscreen eliminated the need to ask someone to slather the spots you couldn’t reach.  But spray sunscreens present a great danger.  They contain zinc and titanium which are great for protecting against UVB rays when applied to the skin, but in spray form they release toxic metallic fumes that you inhale into your lungs and can be cancerous.  If I had to choose between caner or creepy stranger to “do my back”, I will choose the stranger every time.

I have friends who relish in the fact that they use over 50 SPF sunscreen.  They talk with such pride about their proactive sun approach but truth be told, you can save your money on sunscreen with anything higher than a 15-45SPF.  If you use more than a 45 SPF sunscreen you will only get a 1.3% increase in sun protection.  This means you need to weigh in if 1.3% is important enough for you to expose yourself to the extra chemicals present in a higher SPF.

The highest incident rate of skin cancer is currently in Australia.  Australia is therefore at the cutting edge (no pun intended) of regulating sunscreen.  This means that when you go to buy sunscreen you should avoid some of the more popular brands, which are often the worst offenders of misinformation, and go for a brand that adheres to Australian testing standards. 

My grandfather is in his 80′s and his face is mottled and caved in from the skin cancer his dermatologist has carved away from his nose, head and ears.   He spent years in the sun with no sun protection and is now paying a high price.  I’m sure if he had to do it over, he would want this kind of information to help him.  Enjoy the sun but do so well-informed.