KEY POINTS:
People who suffer repeated sunburn, especially during childhood and adolescence, are dramatically more likely to develop the deadly skin cancer, melanoma.
Ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun and solariums is the light that does the most damage. We cannot see or feel it and it is not hot, but we sure know about it a few hours later when we have had too much of it.
And a few years down the track, research shows, the consequences can be much worse. Aged skin, eye damage and even skin cancer can be the price we pay later for the sun we enjoy now.
Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in New Zealand and, per head, this country has the highest rate of malignant skin cancer - melanoma - in the world. The cost to our health system is $33 million each year.
Eye damage from acute or long-term exposure to UV light includes inflammation of the cornea and iris, conjunctivitis, even the development of cataracts and cancers of different parts of the eye.
Exposure to the sun is also the primary cause of premature ageing of the skin. That youthful tan we have somehow come to associate with health and beauty can lead to much earlier and more severe wrinkling. The loss of skin elasticity, caused by overexposure to the sun's UV rays, is generally permanent and irreversible without cosmetic surgery
And contrary to what is popularly thought, people with olive or dark skin are also at risk of sun damage, and therefore of skin cancer, even though they can stay out in the sun longer.
It is an irony that two of the nicest things about Auckland mean that we are exposed to more UV light.
If we had a hotter climate, like cities in Australia, we might spend more time indoors. If the atmosphere above us was more polluted, less UV light would get through. But our temperate climate and clear skies mean we are prime targets for sun damage.
You would need to have spent the last several years under a rock not to have some awareness of the slip, slop, slap and wrap campaigns to encourage Aucklanders to protect themselves from overexposure to UV light.
Slipping on a shirt and into some shade, slopping on sunscreen, slapping on a hat and wrapping on a pair of sunglasses have been promoted as sensible sun behaviour since 1993. But there are still some people who think that somehow a tan will bring them immunity from melanoma, when in fact it may actually trigger the cancer.
Children, at home or at school, are often outdoors during the peak UV level times of 11am to 4pm.
Therefore, the "Never let your children get sunburnt" campaign targets parents of 8-to-12-year-olds (research finds kids this age are still largely influenced by their parents' advice) encouraging them to get their children to take care.
Childhood days in the sunny outdoors of an Auckland summer cannot be beaten. We just have to make sure those days in the sun don't lead to cancer in years to come.
