Fun in the sun fanatics face consequences
by Carlos Raigosa, reporter

    Now that I have the after 4 p.m. hours free to do as I will because I work some grueling banking hours in the mornings, I have taken up some tasks to occupy my time.

    Much like Robert Stack, less the trench coat and the syndicated Unsolved Mysteries show, I decided to bring up some of my own obscure and not-so-well researched facets of our everyday life.

    It’s nearly time to partake in some outdoor activities. You know, going to Rangers games, playing out on the lake or gardening. I know it’s happened to most of you. You leave the house, but you forget your sunscreen.

    Oh well, you think, I won’t be out in the sun too long. You do stay out in the sun too long, and you’re surprised that you haven’t burned badly. Still, you feel heaviness on your skin. That night, you start feeling a burning sensation.

    The next morning you get up and look in the mirror. Yeah, that’s you in the mirror. All that fun you had shows on your skin, doesn’t it? Despite our association of sunburn and tanning with fun in the sun, sunburn is an injury to the skin caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation. The sun’s ultraviolet rays, ranging in length from 200 to 400 nanometers, invisible to the naked eye, are also responsible for cancer. In my astronomy teacher Mr. Benge’s words, “deal with it, m’kay.”

    I could go ahead and tell you what goes on with your skin, but it would bore you, so I’ll just Cliff Note it for you. Three things happen. In an attempt to repair damaged cells, vessels widen in order to rush blood to the surface of the skin. The capillaries break down and slowly leak blood.

    Also the exposure to the sun stimulates the skin to manufacture more melanin. This pigment makes us appear darker (darker-skinned people, in general, can better withstand exposure to the sun and are more likely to tan than burn).

    As if looking like a tomato isn’t enough, your skin starts too peel. Sure it may not get as bad as Michael’s from Survivor did, but it does get nasty.

    The peeling that takes place as the sunburn progresses is the skin’s effort to thicken up in preparation for further sun exposure. The skin thickens and darkens with each sun exposure, but some individuals, lacking the ability to tan, suffer sunburns with each exposure.

    So for some of you this might be the time to start stocking up on the top-notch, heavy-duty sun block if you want to enjoy the summer.

    I don’t really consider myself as lucky since most of my daylight hours are spent inside working. I’d much rather run the risk of getting a sunburn from the sun than from a florescent light inside a building.