The Sun Also Burns

In backyards and on beaches, wherever the sun shines brightly, multitudes of people have begun to stretch out like so many sausages on a griddle--all for the sake of a handsome, "healthy" tan. This rite of summer is warming, relaxing and so socially desirable that few sun worshipers heed the constant words of caution from doctors. Despite its appearance of health, a suntan apparently has little physical value; too much sun over a long period of time may permanently damage the skin.

Overexposure. Tanning is actually the skin's way of protecting itself. In a reaction to the sun's rays, the skin thickens and dark pigment moves to the surface from underlying layers to help absorb later radiation. Dark-skinned persons have a larger supply of such protective pigmentation at the surface and can take considerably more sun without burning. Redheads, blondes and fair-skinned persons run the greatest risk.

Aside from a feeling of social wellbeing, the only proven beneficial effect of sunning is the formation of vitamin D--something already in plentiful supply in the normal U.S. diet. In some cases, the sun also helps in clearing up acne and eczema, but excess exposure leaves the skin wrinkled, coarse and leathery like the back of a cowboy's neck. In a study directed by Dermatologist John M. Knox of Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston, the most noticeable degenerative changes in skin tissues were found to be related not to age but to the areas of greatest exposure to the elements. "The visible cutaneous changes usually interpreted as aging," says the report, "are apparently due largely, if not entirely, to sunlight."

Warns the American Medical Association committee on cosmetics: "There is undeniable evidence that the effects of the sun are cumulative and at some point irreversible. The evidence is clear that chronic exposure to sunlight can be one of the major factors in the production of precancerous and cancerous conditions of the skin."

Greasy Red Stuff. As evidence that most people are more than willing to risk sunburn's dangers, store shelves are crammed with dozens of suntan lotions and creams. They prevent sunburn only to the extent that they block out burning ultraviolet rays from the sun, and they allow true tanning only to the extent that they let those same ultraviolet rays through. Perhaps the most effective sun-screening agent of all is a dark red veterinary petroleum jelly, used during World War II for life-raft survival. Trouble is, the stuff is indeed red (although it loses its color when rubbed on); it is also greasy and smells like tar.

Drug companies are now investigating lotions made with benzophenone compounds. The new products promise to be ten to 50 times more effective than present sun-screening agents, and as soon as safety tests are completed the benzophenones are expected to be commercially available, possibly by next summer.

For those who will listen, doctors strongly recommend gradualism as the best lotion of all: about 20 minutes the first day out, 40 minutes the second day, and 20 minutes longer each subsequent day. The truly cautious sun faddist should have started his daily doses more than a month ago, when the ultraviolet rays were not quite so searing.

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