3 ms·

My older parents here in the southern US are both dealing with skin cancer of various forms (melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma) because of accumulated sun ex

My older parents here in the southern US are both dealing with skin cancer of various forms (melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma) because of accumulated sun exposure from when they were younger. Neither one of them were tanning fanatics/sun bunnies/whatever but they would very occasionally get mild sunburns from working outside without adequate protection. I myself try to avoid prolonged direct exposure to the sun as a matter of principle to try and avoid having to deal with that stuff when I'm their age. If I'm going to be out in direct sunlight for a prolonged period of time, I'm going to be wearing sunscreen and a hat. It's really hard to know where to draw the line between "too much sun" vs "no sun".

bityard 2y ago
> because of accumulated sun exposure from when they were younger. I don't think this gets enough attention. It's anecdata, so grain of salt and all of that, but one day when I was around 8 or 10 years old, I spent essentially the entirety of a bright summer day playing on the beach near a relative's cabin. It was the longest I had ever spent continuously in the sun up until that point. No one warned me to take extended breaks in the shade, or suggested sunscreen. I don't think I even heard about sunscreen at that point. At the end of the day, almost all of my skin was bright red and extremely painful to the touch. All of the adults thought it was funny. I was in excruciating pain for the next 48 hours. It's not that the adults (parents, aunts, uncles, etc) weren't caring, they just seemed to think that painful sunburns were just a normal summer thing. Maybe even a right of passage. I was _much_ more careful about sun exposure after that experience. Anyway, fast forward a couple of decades and now I have damaged skin everywhere that sunburn happened. Lots of moles on the tops of my arms, shoulders, and back (virtually none on the bottom), scar tissue from where injuries never healed properly, etc. Skin cancer is very likely in my future. I have two kids and they whine and groan and complain when I berate them about not wearing sunscreen or taking shade breaks. Oh well.
- alyandon 2y ago
  We can only strive to do better for our children than our parents did for us.
GeoAtreides 2y ago
>occasionally get mild sunburns >It's really hard to know where to draw the line between "too much sun" vs "no sun". Apparently it's not that hard, occasionally mild sunburns is right out; seems like we have a provisional maximal limit to sun exposure.
- alyandon 2y ago
  I really think genetics has to be a factor as well.
- consteval 2y ago
  > occasionally mild sunburns is right out It doesn't actually work this way. Even tanning often raises your risk, and tanning more often might be more harmful than burning rarely. Also people of color generally don't get burns, but do get sun damage and do develop melanoma.

bityard 2y ago

> because of accumulated sun exposure from when they were younger. I don't think this gets enough attention. It's anecdata, so grain of salt and all of that, but one day when I was around 8 or 10 years old, I spent essentially the entirety of a bright summer day playing on the beach near a relative's cabin. It was the longest I had ever spent continuously in the sun up until that point. No one warned me to take extended breaks in the shade, or suggested sunscreen. I don't think I even heard about sunscreen at that point. At the end of the day, almost all of my skin was bright red and extremely painful to the touch. All of the adults thought it was funny. I was in excruciating pain for the next 48 hours. It's not that the adults (parents, aunts, uncles, etc) weren't caring, they just seemed to think that painful sunburns were just a normal summer thing. Maybe even a right of passage. I was _much_ more careful about sun exposure after that experience. Anyway, fast forward a couple of decades and now I have damaged skin everywhere that sunburn happened. Lots of moles on the tops of my arms, shoulders, and back (virtually none on the bottom), scar tissue from where injuries never healed properly, etc. Skin cancer is very likely in my future. I have two kids and they whine and groan and complain when I berate them about not wearing sunscreen or taking shade breaks. Oh well.

alyandon 2y ago
We can only strive to do better for our children than our parents did for us.

GeoAtreides 2y ago

>occasionally get mild sunburns >It's really hard to know where to draw the line between "too much sun" vs "no sun". Apparently it's not that hard, occasionally mild sunburns is right out; seems like we have a provisional maximal limit to sun exposure.

alyandon 2y ago
I really think genetics has to be a factor as well.
consteval 2y ago
> occasionally mild sunburns is right out It doesn't actually work this way. Even tanning often raises your risk, and tanning more often might be more harmful than burning rarely. Also people of color generally don't get burns, but do get sun damage and do develop melanoma.