In harm's rays
How Valley parents can protect kids from cancer-causing sun exposure Consider these facts from the Arizona Department of Health Services: Eighty percent of a person's lifetime exposure to sun comes in the first 18 years of life; children are especially vulnerable, particularly in Arizona where sunshine is one of the state's economic engines.
And a blistering sunburn in childhood doubles the chances for skin cancer later in life.
So, what's a parent to do?
"Kids are a group we want to make sure use sunscreens, and it begins with the parents," says Dr. Ronald Wheeland, professor and chief of dermatology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.
But sunscreen, no matter how good, still only lasts 2 1/2 to three hours. Ronald Hansen, the state's only full-time pediatric dermatologist and a professor at the UA medical school, says most people apply it incorrectly: too little, too late.
"Most people use about 20 percent of what they need. They rub it in and use it like lotion."
It needs to be applied lavishly (think a 1-ounce shot glass) and about 20 minutes before you go out in the sun, he says.
If your child is fair-skinned, freckled and fair-haired, and has a parent who's been diagnosed with melanoma, he or she is at particular risk.
Wheeland says he's seeing skin cancer - traditionally diagnosed in people in their 50s, 60s or 70s - in people in their 20s and 30s. He credits lifestyle as the likely cause: "Here in Arizona there's more time to be outdoors. . . . We are exposing more of ourselves and are spending more of our time in the sun."
Hansen says, "Stay out of the noon sun in Phoenix, and stay out of tanning parlors, period, he advises. He points to the 55,104 melanoma cases expected this year nationwide - 1,180 in Arizona - and the state's relentless sunshine.
"A healthy tan is a myth," Hansen says. "Prison pallor is better for your skin.
Sun Article