Sunscreen: It’s Routine

What’s the one thing you should put on every single morning?

Clean socks? Your Adidas jacket? Those cute little butterfly clips? Close, but not the answer we were looking for. The one thing you should wear, every day, rain or shine, is sunscreen.

If you think sunscreen is only for the pool or the beach, you’re wrong! Sunscreen should be a regular part of your daily routine.

Everybody knows you can get a really bad sunburn in the middle of a bright, summer afternoon. But your skin can get damaged even when the sun isn’t shining.

“We all know people who go to the beach on a cloudy day and still get burned,” says Dr. Kathleen Behr, a dermatologist at UCLA. “A lot of ultraviolet rays [from the sun] still come through even on cloudy days.”

Think about how many hours you spend outside. If you attend a school in the Los Angeles area, chances are you’re outside every day for recess, lunch and P.E. class. The brainiacs who designed your school might not have thought about planting trees for shade, so you might not have much. This means you’re outside, exposed to ultraviolet rays, for about five to 10 hours each week. More, if you play an outdoor sport like soccer or baseball.

Studies show that most of the damage the sun does to our skin happens before we turn 18 , says Behr. So, how you take care of your skin now, when you’re a kid, will affect the kind of skin you have when you’re really, really old, say, 35.

If you don’t protect your skin and let it get tanned and burned repeatedly, you run a higher risk of developing skin cancer as an adult. Also, you could end up with skin that feels like an old piece of leather. Ultraviolet rays can damage all skin types, although the fairer-skinned have to be especially careful. That means everybody should protect their skin by wearing sunscreen, hats or other clothing that covers you up.

Readers can reach Emily Dwass by e-mail at [email protected] or write to Kid Health, L.A. Times, Health section, Times Mirror Square, L.A., CA 90053.

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