Skin Cancer

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Pages: 3

We all have heard before cover up when you go to the beach and/or wear sunscreen, but many do not know the seriousness of the subject and the effects sun exposure can have on the quality and heath of our largest organ, the skin. There are many effects that have to deal with sun damage, some being very obvious in our current society, with the effect being skin cancer, which I would put as the first and foremost concern. Physical degradation being another effect especial- ly of the face causing wrinkling and spotting of the skin. Lastly, the effect of just sunlight expo- sure hurts our skins ability to heal properly. Although we already know to protect ourselves from the sun we rarely do so, even considering the great effects of sun damage/sun …show more content…
www.cdc.gov, UVA is the most abundant source of solar radiation at the earth's surface and penetrates beyond the top layer of human skin. Scientists believe that UVA radiation can cause damage to connective tissue and increase a person's risk for developing skin cancer. “Each year in the US, nearly 5 million people are treated for skin cancer. In 2006, in the most recent study available, 3.5 million cases were diagnosed in 2.2 million people,” as reported by www.skincancer.org.
When we think of aging skin, we do not necessarily think of sun damage being an effect. We might think of smoking, just being plain unhealthy for many years, or maybe even just get- ting older as a reason to the sad wrinkled expressions one might have over the years. When you hear premature wrinkling this simply means wrinkling before you were ever supposed to see a line on your face. According to The New York Times, article titled “Wrinkles In-Depth Report” quotes “Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight (radiation referred to as UVA or UVB) accounts for about 90% of the symptoms of premature skin aging. Most of these effects occur by age 20.” This means only 10% is not within our control which is pretty astonishing considering all the men and women with wrinkles way before there