THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 3, 1994 TAG: 9406010103
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 01B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Pam Starr
DATELINE: 940603 LENGTH: Long
That's what you get when you try to cram a lifetime of tanning into 13 summers. And we're not talking about the unrelenting, searing sun of the South. I lived in overcast Pittsburgh most of my life.
{REST} Back then I never thought about the dangers of overtanning. It was all about looking good. Once I saw how I could change my appearance by the simple act of lying out in the sun I was hooked.
Every summer I tried to get darker than the previous one. It even became a sort of competition among friends and family members. My lighter-skinned sisters could never catch me in the tanning race and my best friend would simply freckle or burn. All I had to do was reapply Hawaiian Tropic Dark Tanning Lotion every hour and watch the inevitable browning occur right before my eyes.
What a superior feeling. Strutting around in my trademark white bikini (to show off the great tan, of course) gave me a confidence I lacked in other areas.
What I didn't realize then, and deeply regret now, is how the sun played havoc with my skin. My mother really did know best. Her porcelain white skin was as smooth and creamy as milk (but I thought it looked pale and unhealthy), and she never went out in the sun without a hat or sunscreen.
``Honey, you're going to ruin your skin,'' she would admonish me on a number of occasions, while I was slowly roasting my browned body. ``Please use some sunscreen.''
Her pleas went unheeded. And while my mom's skin stayed youthful (even to this day, at the age of 61), mine changed drastically. Little raised bumps, tiny moles, started to appear on my stomach and chest in my mid-20s. Ugly brown spots on my arms and legs seemed to multiply overnight. A large mole on my lower back had changed color so I had it removed. Fortunately it was benign.
But vanity won out over health in the end. The crow's feet around the eyes are what really made me stop and take a good, long look in the mirror one day.
``Oh my gosh, look at this,'' I called to my husband. ``I have wrinkles already!''
He gazed at my face and diplomatically said ``yeah, but they're not too noticeable.''
That did it. I stopped sunbathing at the age of 27 and started using a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 whenever I went outside. It has been five years since my last marathon tanning session and I think the damage control has helped a bit.
Dr. Wayne Ferguson, however, tells me that if he looked at my skin under a microscope he could see the early changes due to the sun. He's a general surgeon who will be participating in the skin cancer screenings at Virginia Beach General Hospital June 14-16.
``Broken down collagen leads to wrinkling and leathery looks,'' said Ferguson. ``Men who think it's macho to go outside without sunscreen or a shirt should see what their skin looks like under a microscope. It's premature aging.''
At least I never went to a tanning salon. I've seen some kids, mostly girls, whose skin looks as worn as an old leather wallet. When I've asked where they got those dark tans the answer is always ``at the salon.'' Then they fry at the beach all day, turning themselves over and over like the main meal on a spit.
And what really worries Ferguson is the number of younger people with precancerous skin changes he has seen in the last 15 years. He said he believes that ozone depletion, along with increased air pollution, has contributed to the rise in skin cancer cases in the last 15 years.
``I have a 29-year-old patient - a blue-eyed blond - with malignant melanoma that has spread under the lymph glands,'' he said. ``People are just now starting to pay the price. As far as tanning salons go, I don't know that there's any safe ultraviolet ray.''
Ferguson warned that if you suffered blistering sunburns as a child you'll be more prone to skin cancer as an adult. Moles that change color, have an irregular border or bleed easily when rubbed or touched should be checked. A red spot on the skin could be suspicious as well, he said. But, Ferguson pointed out, skin cancer has the highest survival rate of any cancer, and if it's caught in the local stages it can be removed easily.
``Frankly, melanoma is not a terrible death rate,'' he said. ``The question we have to answer is ``how deep did it go?'' If it's gone deep it could be in the lymph nodes.''
The best way to prevent skin cancer is, of course, to avoid the sun. If that's not possible, said Ferguson, always use a Sun Protection Factor of 15 or higher and wear a hat if you're prone to burning.
``It's OK to go to the beach, preferably after 8 p.m.,'' he said, laughing. ``Moon tans are wonderful.''
by CNB