The Sun and Your Skin >>Basics
• The Skin
• The Sun and Ultraviolet Radiation
• The Sun and Your Skin
The Skin
- The skin is the largest organ in the human body
- Your skin makes up about 16% of your total body weight
- Lots of skin cells fall off of your body every day. (Scratch your leg – more than one hundred thousand skin cells just fell off!)
- An average adult’s skin weighs about 11 pounds
- About 90% of the dust in your house is dead skin cells
- The same thing that gives color to your skin also colors your eyes and hair. It’s called melanin.
The Sun and Ultraviolet Radiation
- UV exposure increases 5% with every 1,000 feet above sea level. So, if you’re on a peak at 9,000 feet, you’re exposed to 45% more UV than at sea level!
- It only takes 8 minutes for UV rays to travel 93 million miles from the sun to the earth.
- “Ozone” comes from a Greek word meaning “to smell,” because in a pure form it actually smells bad.
- Our eyes can only detect part of the light that comes from the sun.
- Just like we have “snow days” in the U.S., there are “High UV Days” in Chile (where there’s a big ozone hole) and everyone has to stay inside.
- UV radiation is present every day, even when it’s cloudy.
- The Sun is about 90 million miles from the earth.
- The Sun’s diameter is around 840,000 miles. (It is approximately 109 times wider than the earth.)
- Approximately one million earths can fit inside the Sun.
- The Sun spins around once every 27.4 days.
- The core of the Sun is approximately 15 million degrees Celsius. (The coolest part of the Sun is nearly 6,000 degrees Celsius.
- The hottest place in the world is Dallol, Ethiopia. (Its average annual temperature is 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 C).
- When your shadow is shorter than you are, you are being exposed to high levels of UV rays.
The Sun and Your Skin
- Protecting ourselves from the sun could prevent about 80% of skin cancers.
- Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States?
- A tan is actually a sign of damage and the body’s attempt to protect itself from further harm.
- We get more than half of our sun exposure by age 18.
- As few as 2 severe sunburns before the age of 18 can dramatically increase your risk for developing skin cancer.
- Animals can get skin cancer too.
- A lot of exposure to UV rays can actually damage and change the DNA in skin cells, making them abnormal.
- Most sunscreens only protect from UVB rays and only “broad-spectrum” ones protect from UVA rays too.
- Too much sun can make the lens of your eye cloudy, a condition called cataracts.
- Many goats in South America have gotten cataracts from too much sun exposure.
- Snowblindness occurs when UV rays reflect off of the snow and damage your eyes – it’s like getting a sunburn on your eyes and may leave you blind for a few days!
- You need to apply sunscreen at least 30 minutes before going into the sun so that it can absorb into your skin.
- If caught and treated early, most non-melanoma skin cancers have a cure rate of over 90%.
- The most common site for skin cancers on men is the back and on women is the legs.
- Tanning beds do just as much damage to your skin as the sun does.
- During 10am – 3pm the sun is directly overhead and gives off the most damaging UVR.
- Melanoma (the most dangerous skin cancer) is the most common cancer among women ages 25-29.
- While most children are born without moles, the majority of moles develop in childhood as a result of sun exposure.
- The sun causes 80% of premature aging, making sun protection one of the best defenses against wrinkles.
- Half of all new cancers are skin cancers. (American Cancer Society’s 2001 Facts and Figures, according to the AAD)
- More than one million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year? (American Cancer Society’s 2001 Facts and Figures, according to the AAD)
- About 90% of the 800,000 skin cancer cases diagnosed in the United States are sun-related. (CNN: Cancer Facts from the ACS)
- Some scientists estimate that a child who wears sunscreen everyday will cut their risk of developing skin cancer by as much as 70%.
- Non-melanoma skin cancer is caused by a high total exposure to ultraviolet radiation during one’s lifetime.
Cut your risk substantially by reducing your exposure and taking care of your skin’s health:
SOURCES
1. American Academy of Dermatology
2. American Cancer Society
3. ThinkQuest
4. Centers for Disease Control
5. National Cancer Institute
