Sunburn: To be or not to be?

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Every spring, but the sun becomes a little more active, thousands of people eager to get rid of the annoying white skin. In the summer of wanting to become a "chocolate" is even greater. In response, hundreds of doctors and scientists screaming about the dangers of a tan.

For a long time it remained in vogue whiteness. In the XVII century "interesting pallor," it was so in the trend, which is a specially coated white chalk, egg whites, vinegar and lead powder. Dark skin tone for many centuries, by contrast, was considered undesirable as visually roughened appearance and said that it earned in the sweat of his brow under the scorching sun. Everything changed dramatically in the last century. Legend of the world of fashion Coco Chanel burned in the sun during the cruise in Cannes. And quite by accident! But for hundreds of ladies I picked up a new trend. It was in 1923, and in 1927, perfumer Jean Pete created the «Huile de Chaldee» - the first sunblock. More than one decade fashionista sunbathing without any worries, while scientists have sounded the alarm.

Stories of many people who could not live without the sun, and then became ill with melanoma - are not uncommon. As Laura Mae McMullen, whose story published on the BBC website, the majority of them tan brought confidence and was a part of the image. Indeed, at some point, have a skin of dark brown color was an indicator of prestige and success. Moreover, over time it became clear that the desire to tan can turn into addiction. Tanning dependence - so called psychological dependence from ultraviolet rays. In this case, it is no less harmful than other addictions. Researchers all over the world say that such a thing as a "safe tan" does not exist. Long-term sun bathing can lead to chronic and acute effects on the immune system, skin and eyes. In the most serious cases, regular and unreasonable exposure to the sun can provoke the development of skin cancer and cataracts. So, according to data on cancers of the skin, only in the United Kingdom, the number of patients with this diagnosis has increased more than 2-fold compared with the beginning of the 80s of the last century. 2000 of these cases every year are fatal.

Solarium - bad alternative

In 1975, Jörg Wolff founded the world's first company to produce lamps for tanning beds Cosmedico, after which artificial tanning has become more affordable. One of the stable leaders in this regard has been and remains the United States.

So, in 2005 the American Academy of Dermatology magazine published an article which stated: nearly 30 million people in the United States annually visit the solarium. Most of them - women aged 16 to 49 years. At the same time about the dangers of this procedure it has long been known. Doctors from Oxford and denied the common myth that tanning without burning in the solarium is safer than the sun. Website WHO recommends all to completely abandon the fake tan, but these appeals are unsuccessful. Scientists from San Diego State University recently conducted a survey of 629 women, who showed amazing results. Thus, 99.4% of recipients agreed that tanning can cause premature aging, wrinkles and even melanoma, but, 69.1% responded that they still like to visit a solarium. The main arguments "for" were feeling relaxed during the procedure and increasing the attractiveness of their own afterwards.

Darius Karimipur, assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Michigan said: "We see that the government is interested in the protection of minors from the known carcinogens such as tobacco. But it is quite obvious that the same should be done with tanning booths. " Today in France, Germany, Finland and California have passed laws that prohibit the solarium to persons under 18 years of age. Recent estimates suggest that tanning causes about 419 000 cases of skin cancer in the US each year, which is almost 2 times more than the number of patients with lung cancer associated with smoking.

protection measures

Despite all the known risks of any tanning, people continue to flock to beaches to get your dose of ultraviolet radiation. To best protect themselves, many go to extraordinary measures.

For example, not so long ago in sale bikini with a built-in sensor that alerts its owner when it is time to do more sunscreen. The device even has a function to send a message to the smartphone boyfriend to let him know when it is time to apply the cream on the skin of his girlfriend. By the way, the widespread belief that the pre-tan protect you from sunburn, too, is not true, says Scientific American. David Leffell, chief of dermatologic surgery and cutaneous oncology at Yale University School of Medicine said that such a measure has the same effect as that of Cream SPF 3 or less. So, the burning will be delayed by 10-20 minutes.

To make your stay in the sun was as secure as possible, the WHO recommends the following guidelines:

1.UF rays are most active with 10 to 4 hours. It is better to avoid sun exposure in this interval.

2.Nahodites in the shade, although it must be remembered that it protects only 50%.

3.Odevaytes right: wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, tight and loose clothes.

4.Nanosite sunscreen every two hours and after work, play, exercise in the fresh air and swimming.

Eleanor Burdin