It inhabits the centre of our Solar System.
Without it, our planet would be a hard, cold rock, without any plants or animals
or humans. What is it? The sun. Your warm, cuddly, shiny friend.
Or is it? The sun provides earth with warmth and light, but the sun can also be
harmful.
Exposing large areas of the skin to UV
radiation in sunlight while playing, exercising, and working can result in
serious health problems. These problems include skin cancer of various
forms. Everybody gets a few sunburns in their life, whether they try and
avoid the sun, or long for its tan-giving rays. You may not keep track of
how long you spend out in the sun, but your skin does. Every minute, every
second, you spend in the sun, your skin keeps track of. The more time you
spend, the greater your risk of acquiring skin cancer.
There three types of skin cancer that a
person can acquire, none of them fun and none of them pretty. Melanoma is
the most serious and the most common kind of skin cancer. Others kinds are
basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, both nonmelanoma skin cancers.
Skin cancer is, basically, growths and tumors on the skin.
How can you get skin cancer? If you a)
spend time in the sun, b) use a tanning bed to get darker, and c) if there is a
history of skin cancer in your family. You may get it, you may not, but
the earlier in life you damage your skin, the earlier you may be afflicted.
Skin cancer is now one of the most
common types of cancer in the world, and
roughly 10,000 people die of it each year.
People have become aware that the sun can
be damaging to their skin. So, some "thoughtful" people developed a
"solution" to this problem: The indoor tanning bed, a nice, safe way to darken
your skin without the harmful side affects of the sun's UV rays. Good
idea? Wrong! The tanning beds in tanning salons are twice as hazardous as lying
out on the beach on a hot day. Why? They give off at least twice as many
UV rays than the sun. The rays from a tanning bed are long-wave (UVA) rays
instead of short-wave (UVB) rays that you get from the sun. UVA rays don't
burn your skin like UVB rays do, but they do bore deeper into your skin and
cause more permanent damage!
So next time you leave your house, whether it's winter or summer, cloudy or
sunny, be aware of that round, glowing ball above your head. Protect
yourself with hats, sunglasses, and sun screen, and try to cover your skin more
often that not. Before you head out to the tanning salon, think to
yourself, "Is it worth risking my life just for a tan?"
crazzieme
"Are you toast?"
