STEVEN SHAPIRO, MD: One of the things I tell my
patients in the room, most people say, “I don’t go out in the sun, I don’t
have any skin cancer, I don’t have any sun damage,” and I tell people,
“Look at the outer part of your arm.” And on the outer part of their
arm you’ll see freckling, you compare it to the inside of your arm, you
don’t see quite as much, that’s a measure of your own sun damage.
That will also show people, too, that they do have some background sun
that they’re getting, and it’s the same sun walking down the street that
it is at the beach. Most people feel you have to be at the pool or the
ocean to get sun, that’s not true.
MARIANO BUSSO: Yes, that’s not true. I see
people with major suntans, I say, “You’ve been in the sun?” “No.”
“But you have a suntan.” “Well, I run from eight to nine.”
Right. People think that the bad rays are between ten and four.
All the sun exposure is going to harm your skin, it doesn’t
matter the time of the day. Of course, you’re going to get a lot
more harmful radiation at noontime, it has the highest index value, but
at seven o’clock at night or in the morning, you’re still going to have
harmful rays.
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