SPF 50+

I'm going to hop up on my soap box for this blog entry. As summer gets closer and people are spending more time outside, one word always comes to mind: sunscreen!

I'll be the first to admit that I haven't always been good about applying sunscreen. I went to the tanning bed before prom and in college. But my legs have been lily white during all seasons for about five years now. And that's okay! You know what over exposure to the sun gets you? Wrinkles. And. Sun Spots.

So before going out to work in the yard or heading to the pool or laying out on the beach, please, please, PLEASE apply and re-apply your sunscreen! (p.s. that picture is of MY sunscreen collection!)

I leave you with some skin cancer facts from the skin cancer foundation (http://www.skincancer.org/Skin-Cancer-Facts/).

GENERAL FACTS:

• Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than one million skin cancers are diagnosed annually.
  
• Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.
  
• One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.
  
• About 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.


• Up to 90 percent of the visible changes commonly attributed to aging are caused by the sun.


• Contrary to popular belief, 80 percent of a person's lifetime sun exposure is not acquired before age 18; only about 23 percent of lifetime exposure occurs by age 18.
  

TANNING FACTS:

• Frequent tanners using new high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure.
  
• First exposure to tanning beds in youth increases melanoma risk by 75 percent.
  
• People who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.