Dr. Terry Simpson on sunscreen - protect your children and yourself from the sun
Hello I'm Terry Simpson and this is your doctor's orders. Today we are going to talk about sunscreen, and why is that? Because the best way to prevent cancer is to not to get it at all. There has been a large problem with sunscreen lately, because many of them only protect against one of the rays. There are two types of ultraviolet rays, UVA and UVB. We'll make it simple. UVA are the rays that penetrate skin, can even go through windows and clothing, can cause damage and eventually lead to skin cancer. We've seen a rapid rise in skin cancer recently, and we think maybe it was because of our mislabeling of sunscreen. Today we have a different situation. The government has now stated that sunscreens have to be labeled completely differently. You can no longer use the term "sun block" you can no longer use the term "waterproof." Now they have to be labeled as to You need to wear a lot of sun blockwhether they take care of UVA and UVB rays, and there are a lot of sunscreens out there. Consumer reports recently did a panel of a number of sunscreens, some very expensive ones, some very inexpensive ones, and one of the ones they came up with that was pretty inexpensive was Walgreens sunscreen. It's a simple sunscreen, has a 50 SPF which means it controls you out of the sun for 50 minutes. It is water resistant. You can't use the term waterproof, and it protects both against the cancer causing UVA rays and the sun burning UVB rays. Think of "B" for burn. So, this summer as you start going out and thinking about being in the sun remember a couple of things. You need to wear a lot of sun block, How much sun block? Probably you're going to need to wear the equivalent of a shot glass worth of sun block. You're going to need to reapply it on yourself about every hour, and sun block is not the mort important thing. Protect yourself from the sun. You might think about wearing other clothing to protect yourself from the sun, like great hats. The most important message we can give you is this, protect your kids. We think that 70% of the sun damage that comes to people happens before the age of seventeen. So keep those youngsters out of the sun. Keep them with a lot of sun block, and don't forget we've got some really cool protective clothing you can use. I'm Doctor Terry Simpson and that's your doctor's orders.
