persuasive speech on why you should wear sunscreen

Why You Should Wear Sunscreen Daily

You’re ready for “shot girl summer” and are protected against COVID-19. But are you protected against the sun? Before you get geared up for beach days and boat rides, make sure you’ve got your sun protection figured out. 

Dr. Ata Moshiri , assistant professor of dermatology who sees patients at the Dermatology Clinic at UW Medical Center – Roosevelt , answers your burning questions (pun intended) about sunscreen so you know how to protect your skin and make the most of summer — safely.

Why wear sunscreen?

The impact of sun damage is serious. It can cause wrinkles, lines, pigmentation, thinning of the skin and cancer — and in the Pacific Northwest, it’s all too common.

“The Pacific Northwest has some of the highest rates of skin cancer development in the United States,” says Moshiri.

One effective way to help prevent skin damage is — you guessed it — sunscreen.

“The most important modifiable risk factor to prevent skin cancer is limiting our exposure to the sun and the ultraviolet (UV) radiation that the sun gives off,” says Moshiri. “Sunscreen prevents that UV light from getting to your skin cells and causing damage.”

What type of sunscreen should you use?

There are two main types of sunscreens: chemical and mineral.

“Chemical sunscreens are made up a whole bunch of ingredients, such as oxybenzone or avobenzone, for example,” says Moshiri. “On the other side, we have the physical blockers: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.”

To find out which type of sunscreen you’re purchasing, read the ingredient list on the back of the sunscreen bottle.

Mineral sunscreens are called “physical blockers” with good reason: They sit on top of the skin and help shield it by physically scattering the harmful UV rays.

Chemical sunscreen typically contains a combination of chemicals that can include oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene and homosalate, among many others. They absorb UV rays like a sponge through a chemical reaction that transforms the UV rays into heat.

Chemical sunscreens have been called out for harming the environment , including coral reef bleaching. In addition, a recent study found that applying chemical sunscreens to people’s skin produced significantly higher concentrations of the chemicals in their blood.

While those reasons are obvious deterrents from using chemical sunscreens, Moshiri says they’re a good backup option (and better than no sunscreen at all). Just reach for mineral sunscreen first. 

“More studies need to be done to determine if they are actually harmful. Don’t avoid using chemical sunscreens, just be aware,” he says. “I’d recommend using a physical blocker if you can tolerate it, as they’re better for the environment and there’s less unknown about them.”

At the end of the day, the best sunscreen is the one you actually use.

What is broad-spectrum sunscreen, and should you use it? 

Companies use “broad spectrum” to describe sunscreen that protects against both UVA and UVB rays. You should always reach for sunscreens that protect against both types of light, as they can harm you in different ways.

“UVA and UVB are two different spectra of light on the UV spectrum,” explains Moshiri. “UVA are longer wavelength rays that have lower energy and UVB is a shorter wavelength that has higher energy. Both come from the sun and reach the earth’s surface.”

Because of its longer wavelength, UVA rays tends to penetrate deeper into the skin. It’s responsible for the skin’s tanning response, as well as wrinkles and damaging the elastic fibers and collagen bundles that give elasticity to the skin.

UVB rays, on the other hand, cause more damage to the top layer of skin cells. They are responsible for your sunburn response and are directly related to the long-term development of skin cancer because they can damage the DNA in your cells.

“You want to use a broad-spectrum sunscreen because it’ll protect you from the photoaging elements and the DNA damaging elements,” says Moshiri.

How much SPF is enough?

Now on to the next sunscreen-related decision: what sun protection factor (SPF) to use.

“The minimum recommended number is 30,” says Moshiri. “But in general, the higher the SPF, the better.”

Put simply, as the SPF value increases, sunburn protection increases. 

“Everyone takes a different amount of time to burn, and the SPF number is the factor by which your natural burn time is prolonged,” says Moshiri. “For example, if you take two minutes to burn, and you apply SPF 30 sunscreen, you’re protected for 60 minutes.”

This calculation is not a perfect correlation, so it’s best to err on the side of caution by reapplying every two hours (and after you get wet — Moshiri notes that there’s no such thing as a truly waterproof sunscreen). 

How much sunscreen do you need?

When applying sunscreen, don’t skimp. 

“Use as much as you need in order to cover your exposed skin entirely with a thin layer,” says Moshiri. 

Don’t forget often overlooked areas: the tops of your feet, the backs of your hands and your upper chest. 

Another sunscreen factor to consider: spray versus lotion.

“In general, lotion sunscreens are going to be easier to apply effectively because they force you to smear them over the area,” says Moshiri. “Sprays are a little more fickle. You’re more likely to miss with a spray.”

If you do use a spray-on sunscreen, Moshiri recommends spraying a pool into your palm and rubbing the liquid into your skin to ensure you get good coverage.

Other ways to protect yourself from sun damage

“Sunscreen should be part of a holistic strategy to prevent damage from the sun,” says Moshiri.

He offers simple ways to protect your skin that go beyond the sunscreen bottle: Avoid sun during the peak hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., seek shade when you do go outdoors and wear protective clothing.

“I’m a huge fan of sun protective clothing: broad-brimmed hats that cover your ears, sunglasses and sun-protective shirts,” says Moshiri.

Sun-protective shirts are sometimes rated with a slightly different acronym: UPF, which stands for ultraviolet protection factor. According to Moshiri, UPF has a similar rating system to SPF – the higher the number, the more protection you get.

“There are no special chemicals in sun-protective clothing, just a tighter weave fabric,” he says. “Look for a UPF 50+ rating. It’s marvelous because it’s like wearing a high SPF on your body that you don’t have to reapply.”

What to do if you get sunburned

If you forgot to reapply sunscreen or missed a spot (hello, strange tan lines), you may be in for some red, tender skin. But the good news is that most sunburns are minor and can be treated at home.

“The first thing you want to do is cool the skin,” says Moshiri. “Apply a cool compress or ice pack several times a day or get in a cool bath.”

Then, treat sunburn tenderness and inflammation by taking anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen, keeping the burn moisturized (Moshiri recommends an emollient like calamine lotion or aloe vera), and protecting your skin from further sun exposure.

“You should expect the pain and redness to subside in a few days,” says Moshiri. “You may see your skin peel for the week or two after the burn, which is a normal healing response.”

There’s no need to cover a routine sunburn with a bandage unless you develop blistering. But, if you notice the sunburn is blistered on a large portion of your body or you feel ill afterward, talk to your doctor. Severe sunburns can cause fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and dehydration — all symptoms that warrant a trip to the emergency room.

Practicing sun safety year-round

It goes without saying that the best thing to do is to avoid sunburns altogether. That means applying (and reapplying) sunscreen, wearing protective clothing and seeking shade.

“You should practice good sun hygiene year-round,” says Moshiri. “Avoid burns and deep tans. If you’re deeply tanned by the end of the summer, you’re probably getting too much sun.”

Even when it’s cloudy, don’t slack on your sunscreen application.

"The fact is, you can get sunburned on a cloudy day, as 80% of UV light gets through clouds ,” says Moshiri.

So whether it’s sunny beach weather or a typical overcast day — sunscreen up. Your skin will thank you.  

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Live A Blissful Life

Wear Sunscreen Commencement Speech: A Timeless Primer For Real Life

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The best commencement speech was one that was never delivered during a graduation ceremony. “Wear Sunscreen” by Mary Schmich is a timeless (and funny!) primer for real life. Enjoy!

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A commencement speech written (but not given) in the late 1990s, the “Wear Sunscreen Speech” by Mary Schmich has proven to be a timeless classic about how to live life well.

One of our favorite words of all time is the Wear Sunscreen Commencement Speech by Mary Schmich , which contains quite a lot of doable advice on navigating the murky waters of life.

It was set to music by Baz Luhrmann, the film director and available for viewing on YouTube.

For anyone who is feeling a bit lost, we highly recommend watching this video and allowing these words, which were written in the late 1990s, touch your heart.

The message is timeless and is as true now as it was then.

Wear Sunscreen Commencement Speech

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they’ve faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindsides you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Don’t waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long and, in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t. Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Vanessa is a full-time blogger , an experienced SEO and content marketing strategist, an online entrepreneur, a Reiki Master and Teacher, an affiliate marketer and a lifelong student (because learning is life!). When she's not working, you can find her spending most of her time hard at play with her husband and her son.

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10 Comments

Greetings – So wear sunscreen!  What an interesting presentation bearing words of wisdom!  I liked everything he said except, “one day you will get old.”  I don’t like to be reminded of that!

Anyway, you folks look like you’re enjoying life and having fun.  That’s great!

Thanks for the opportunity to view your websight.

Ha ha that’s true. Not everyone likes to be reminded that we’ll all get old although sometimes we could do with such a reminder. Glad you like the post. Thanks for commenting, Nathaniel.

Hi there. I just love the video. The message is still so powerful. What is sad is that people are forgetting those simple things like walking in nature, singing, dancing, playing like a child will make them happy. 

The things outside of you don’t make you happy, what is inside you makes you happy.

Exactly! The things inside are what make you happy – you are so right!

Wow, these words are inspiring. I had to go back to read this post again because I couldn’t very well understand how sunscreens and all the beautiful words correlated but honestly, I must share this post. This words can touch anyone who has any problem. I am forever glued to your site. And this is a wonderful post.

We’re glad you like it! It always makes us smile. 🙂

Enjoy life as they say life is beautiful. Thank you for sharing this, I browsed the book after reading your article and I got curious and just bookmarked the book. I am sure I want to add this on my reading list. I do enjoy dancing, anywhere in the house! 🙂 especially with my daughter. We enjoy our time together doing kid’s stuff and making me feel young and stress-free while bonding with my daughter.

Life is indeed beautiful and dancing with your daughter sounds like great fun! I’m sure it’s a memory she’ll treasure always – as will you, of course. Thanks for commenting, Gillian.

Thank you for sharing this philosophical piece about living life. It’s true that no one really knows the best kind of advice when it comes to that. It’s not as easy to scientifically verify as “wear sunscreen” and actually even some kinds of sunscreen were proven harmful. 

One of my friends talks about a book called the half-life of facts. It shows how at one point something was considered fact but then it turned out not to be. So “wear sunscreen” might not be a fact any more. Or as long as you specify to wear natural sunscreen and not with chemicals? But that “fact” could have a half-life too.

One of my favorite phrases is to be gentle with yourself. I feel like being gentle with yourself is a good way to live. I don’t like when people give advice like “get out of your comfort zone”. I never had a comfort zone and I always lived a very chaotic life since I was young. So for me I need to practice being comfortable with being comfortable. 

Thanks for sharing about this writing and video. I had never heard of it before. Talk to you next time!

Hi Charles, yes. It’s really funny because of all the advice given, I think the sunscreen is the one that’s been debunked quite firmly – unless you’re using organic and DEET-free ones. Just goes to show how quickly times change.

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Why should you wear sunscreen.

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The Importance of Wearing Sunscreen Everyday

        Ultraviolet rays are always present, and they are the cause of sun damage and skin cancer. Ultraviolet rays are not blocked by the clouds so even if the sun isn’t visible, you’re still exposed to ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks these rays and reduces your chances of getting a sunburn. Look for a broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30+ for the best chance of being protected from the sun. Broad spectrum sunscreens protect you from UVB rays and UVA rays. You should apply sunscreen all over your body and not just your face.

        Aging and wrinkles can be due to excessive exposure to the sun. Years of sun damage will cause you to get wrinkles and look older than you really are. The Skin Care Foundation estimates that 90 percent of aging comes from the hours you spent in the sun. Wearing sunscreen daily saves you from years of visible damage later. Sunscreen protects every skin type.

        If you have a darker complexion, the melanin in your skin offers some protection from sunburns, but you still need to protect your skin from those harmful ultraviolet rays. People with fair skin are more likely to develop skin cancer due to sun exposure, but people with darker skin are at risk of more serious kinds of skin cancer. Therefore, everyone should wear sunscreen every day, no matter your skin tone.

        You may think the damaging effects of a sunburn go away once the redness fades, but that is not the case. Ultraviolet rays penetrate the skin deep into its layers, where cells can be damaged and even killed. Sunburn is the skin’s reaction to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. You can see sunlight or feel heat, but you can’t see or feel UV radiation. Sunburn is a radiation burn to the skin. The long terms effects of sunburn won’t just leave you with wrinkles but also the risk of skin cancer. This includes melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer.

        Melanoma develops in the cells that produce melanin. Melanoma can develop anywhere on your body. It most often develop in areas that have had exposure to the sun, such as your back, legs, arms, and face. Melanomas can also occur in areas that don’t receive much sun exposure, such as the soles of your feet, palms of your hands and fingernail beds. These hidden melanomas are more common in people with darker skin, which is why you should wear sunscreen everyday no matter your skin type.

        Besides just wearing sunscreen every day, here are some other ways you can prevent your risk of skin cancer and aging appearance:

• Wear protective clothing along with your sunscreen. Try to cover your arms and legs as best as you can. Also, wear a hat and sunglasses.
• Avoid the sun during the middle of the day. The sun’s rays are the strongest between 10am and 4pm. Avoiding the sun at its strongest helps prevent sunburns that cause skin damage.
• Avoid tanning beds. Tanning beds increase your risk of skin cancer.
• Become familiar with your skin so you notice changes. Examine your skin often for new skin growths in existing moles, freckles, bumps, and birthmarks.

         Hopefully, you are now convinced to wear sunscreen year-round. Protecting yourself from harmful ultraviolet rays should always be your priority. It may seem like an inconvenience to worry about your exposure to the sun every day, but in the long run it will all be worth it. Dr. Kurzman has his very own broad spectrum sunscreens with an SPF of 50+ and he can recommend the perfect skincare regimen just for you. Enjoy the outdoors, but don’t forget your sunscreen!

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Against Sunscreen Absolutism

Moderate sun exposure can be good for you. Why won’t American experts acknowledge that?

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A ustralia is a country of abundant sunshine, but the skin of most Australians is better adapted to gloomy England than the beaches of Brisbane. The country’s predominantly white population has by far the world’s highest rate of skin cancer , and for years the public-health establishment has warned residents about the dangers of ultraviolet light. A 1980s ad campaign advised Australians to “Slip, Slop, Slap”—if you had to go out in the sun, slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, and slap on a hat. The only safe amount of sun was none at all.

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Then, in 2023, a consortium of Australian public-health groups did something surprising: It issued new advice that takes careful account, for the first time, of the sun’s positive contributions. The advice itself may not seem revolutionary—experts now say that people at the lowest risk of skin cancer should spend ample time outdoors—but the idea at its core marked a radical departure from decades of public-health messaging. “Completely avoiding sun exposure is not optimal for health,” read the groups’ position statement , which extensively cites a growing body of research. Yes, UV rays cause skin cancer, but for some, too much shade can be just as harmful as too much sun.

It’s long been known that sun exposure triggers vitamin D production in the skin, and that low levels of vitamin D are associated with increased rates of stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, depression, osteoporosis, and many other diseases. It was natural to assume that vitamin D was responsible for these outcomes. “Imagine a treatment that could build bones, strengthen the immune system and lower the risks of illnesses like diabetes, heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure and cancer,” The New York Times wrote in 2010 . “Some research suggests that such a wonder treatment already exists. It’s vitamin D.” By 2020, more than one in six adults were on that wonder treatment in the form of daily supplements, which promise to deliver the sun’s benefits without its dangers.

But sunlight in a pill has turned out to be a spectacular failure. In a large clinical trial that began in 2011, some 26,000 older adults were randomly assigned to receive either daily vitamin D pills or placebos, and were then followed for an average of five years. The study’s results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine two years ago. An accompanying editorial, with the headline “A Decisive Verdict on Vitamin D Supplementation,” noted that no benefits whatsoever had been found for any of the health conditions that the study tracked. “Vitamin D supplementation did not prevent cancer or cardiovascular disease, prevent falls, improve cognitive function, reduce atrial fibrillation, change body composition, reduce migraine frequency, improve stroke outcomes, decrease age-related macular degeneration, or reduce knee pain,” the journal said. “People should stop taking vitamin D supplements to prevent major diseases or extend life.”

Read: You’re not allowed to have the best sunscreens in the world

Australia’s new guidance is in part a recognition of this reality. It’s also the result of our improved understanding of the disparate mechanisms through which sunlight affects health. Some of them are intuitive: Bright morning light, filtered through the eyes, helps regulate our circadian rhythms, improving energy, mood, and sleep. But the systemic effects of UV light operate through entirely different pathways that have been less well understood by the public, and even many health professionals. In recent years, that science has received more attention, strengthening conviction in sunlight’s possibly irreplaceable benefits. In 2019, an international collection of researchers issued a call to arms with the headline “ Insufficient Sun Exposure Has Become a Real Public Health Problem .”

Health authorities in some countries have begun to follow Australia’s lead, or at least to explore doing so. In the United Kingdom, for example, the National Health Service is reviewing the evidence on sun exposure, with a report due this summer. Dermatology conferences in Europe have begun to schedule sessions on the benefits of sun exposure after not engaging with the topic for years.

In the United States, however, there is no sign of any such reconsideration. Both the CDC and the American Academy of Dermatology still counsel strict avoidance, recommending that everyone but infants wear sunscreen every day, regardless of the weather. When I asked the AAD about Australia’s new guidelines, a spokesperson offered only that, “because ultraviolet rays from the sun can cause skin cancer, the Academy does not recommend getting vitamin D from sun exposure.”

Such a stance surely reflects understandable concerns about mixed messaging. But it also seems more and more outdated, and suggests a broader problem within American public-health institutions.

More than a century ago, scientists began to notice a mysterious pattern across the globe, which they came to call the “latitude effect.” Once you adjust for confounding variables—such as income, exercise, and smoking rates—people living at high latitudes suffer from higher rates of many diseases than people living at low or middle latitudes. The pattern plays out in many conditions, but it’s most pronounced in autoimmune disorders, especially multiple sclerosis. Throughout Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S., populations at higher latitudes are much more likely to develop MS than those closer to the equator. Over the years, scientists have offered many theories to explain this phenomenon: differences in diet, something in the water. But MS research pointed to a perhaps more obvious answer: sunlight. The higher the latitude, the lower the angle of the sun and the more its rays are filtered by the atmosphere. A number of studies have found links between sun exposure and the disease. Kids who spend less than 30 minutes a day outside on weekends and holidays are much more likely to develop MS than kids who are outside for more than one hour on these same days. Relapse rates for the disease are higher in early spring, after months of sun scarcity. People who were born in the spring (whose mothers received little sun exposure during their third trimester of pregnancy) are more likely to develop MS than people born in the fall.

Here, too, scientists first assumed that vitamin D was the key. But vitamin D supplementation proved useless for MS. Could something else about sun exposure protect against the condition?

A hint came from another disease, psoriasis, a disorder in which the immune system mistakes the patient’s own skin cells for pathogens and attacks them, producing inflammation and red, scaly skin. Since ancient times, it had been observed that sunlight seems to alleviate the condition, and doctors have long recommended “phototherapy” as a treatment. But only in the late 20th century, with the recognition that psoriasis was an autoimmune disease, did they start to understand why it worked.

It turns out that UV light essentially induces the immune system to stop attacking the skin, reducing inflammation. This is unfortunate when it comes to skin cancer—UV rays not only damage DNA, spurring the formation of cancerous cells; they also retard the immune system’s attack on those cells. But in the case of psoriasis, the tamping-down of a hyperactive response is exactly what’s needed. Moreover, to the initial surprise of researchers, this effect isn’t limited to the site of exposure. From the skin, the immune system’s regulatory cells migrate throughout the body, soothing inflammation elsewhere as well.

Read: AI-driven dermatology could leave dark-skinned patients behind

This effect is now believed to be the reason sun exposure helps prevent or ameliorate many autoimmune diseases, including MS, type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. It also explains why other conditions that involve a hyperinflammatory response, such as asthma and allergies, seem to be alleviated by sun exposure. It may even explain why some other diseases now believed to be connected to chronic inflammation, including cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s, are often less prevalent in regions with more sun exposure.

The consortium of Australian public-health groups had those potential benefits in mind when it drafted its new guidelines. “There’s no doubt at all that UV hitting the skin has immune effects,” Rachel Neale, a cancer researcher and the lead author of the guidelines, told me. “There’s absolutely no doubt.” But as to what to do with that knowledge, Neale isn’t certain. “This is likely to be both harmful and beneficial. We need to know more about that balance.”

What does one do with that uncertainty? The original “Slip, Slop, Slap” campaign was easy to implement because of its simplicity: Stay out of the sun; that’s all you need to know. It was, in a sense, the equivalent of the “Just Say No” campaign against drugs , launched in the U.S. around the same time. But the simplicity also sometimes runs afoul of common sense. Dermatologists who tell their patients to wear sunscreen even indoors on cloudy winter days seem out of touch.

Australia’s new advice is, by comparison, more scientific, yet also more complicated. It divides its recommendations into three groups, according to people’s skin color and susceptibility to skin cancer. Those with pale skin, or olive skin plus other risk factors, are advised to practice extreme caution: Keep slip-slop-slapping. Those with “olive or pale-brown skin” can take a balanced approach to sun exposure, using sunscreen whenever the UV index is at least a 3 (which is most days of the year in Australia). Those with dark skin need sunscreen only for extended outings in the bright sun.

Read: The problem sunscreen poses for dark skin

In designing the new guidelines, Neale and her colleagues tried to be faithful to the science while also realizing that whatever line is set on sun exposure, many people will cross it, intentionally or not. Even though skin cancer is rarely fatal when promptly diagnosed, it weighs heavily on the nation’s health-care system and on people’s well-being. “We spend $2 billion a year treating skin cancer in Australia,” Neale said. “It’s bonkers how much we spend, apart from the fact that people end up with bits of themselves chopped out. So at a whole-population level, the messaging will continue to be very much about sun protection.”

That said, we now know that many individuals at low risk of skin cancer could benefit from more sun exposure—and that doctors are not yet prepared to prescribe it. A survey Neale conducted in 2020 showed that the majority of patients in Australia with vitamin D deficiencies were prescribed supplements by their doctors, despite the lack of efficacy, while only a minority were prescribed sun exposure. “We definitely need to be doing some education for doctors,” she told me. In support of the new position statement, Neale’s team has been working on a website where doctors can enter information about their patients’ location, skin color, and risk factors and receive a document with targeted advice. In most cases, people can meet their needs with just a few minutes of exposure a day.

That sort of customized approach is sorely needed in the United States, Adewole Adamson, a dermatologist who directs the Melanoma and Pigmented Lesion Clinic at the University of Texas, told me. “A one-size-fits-all approach isn’t productive when it comes to sun-exposure recommendations,” he said. “It can cause harm to some populations.” For years, Adamson has called for more rational guidelines for people of color, who have the lowest risk of skin cancer and also higher rates of many of the diseases that sunlight seems to ameliorate. Adamson finds it disheartening that mostly white Australia now has “a better official position” than organizations in the U.S., “where nonwhite Americans will outnumber white Americans in the next 20 years.”

To some degree, one can sympathize with the desire to keep things simple. People have limited bandwidth, and some may misunderstand or tune out overly complicated health messages. Others will inevitably turn a little information into a dangerous thing. A fringe segment of the alt-health crowd is already suggesting that skin-cancer dangers have been exaggerated as a way to get us all to buy more sunblock. But knowing that some people will draw strange conclusions from the facts is not a good-enough reason to withhold those facts, as we saw during the pandemic, when experts looking to provide simple guidance sometimes implied that the science was more settled than it was. This is not the 1950s. When public authorities spin or simplify science in an attempt to elicit a desired behavior, they are going to get called on it. Conspiracy-minded conclusions, among other bad ones, are likely to gain more credence, not less. And the public is going to have less faith in national institutions and the positions they espouse the next time.

Besides, in this case, the news being withheld is incredibly good. It’s not every day that science discovers a free and readily accessible intervention that might improve the health of so many people. That’s the real story here, and it’s most compelling when conveyed honestly: Science feels its way forward, one hesitant step at a time, and backtracks almost as often. Eventually, that awkward but beautiful two-step leads us to better ground.

This article appears in the June 2024 print edition with the headline “Against Sunscreen Absolutism.”

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• Personal Care

Here's What SPF You Need in Your Sunscreen, According to a Dermatologist

Is higher SPF actually better? And are you wearing enough? A skin doctor weighs in.

• Added coconut oil to cheap coffee before keto made it cool.

You've heard it before, and you've definitely read it here at CNET: Wear your sunscreen , or risk exposing yourself to harmful UV rays. 

But what SPF should you use? SPF , or sun protection factor, describes the amount of solar energy needed to produce a sunburn on protected skin relative to unprotected skin, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. Logic would follow, then, that wearing a higher SPF would offer you better protection when you're out and about, basking in the sun's rays. 

But is higher SPF sunscreen more protective in a measurable way that actually matters? The tested difference between SPF 30 and SPF 50 is small, according to Dr. Steven Daveluy, board-certified dermatologist and program director at Wayne State University Department of Dermatology -- a difference of 96.7% blocking vs. 98% blocking, in one example he gave. But research on people wearing sunscreen out in "real life" has suggested higher SPFs are more protective, Daveluy said in an email.

Combine this with the fact you're probably not wearing enough sunscreen -- studies have shown people apply only 25 to 50% of the amount that they should, Daveluy said -- and a higher SPF may come out reasonably more protective. 

"You should use about 1 ounce of sunscreen to cover your head, neck, arms, and legs when wearing shorts and a T-shirt," Daveluy recommended, adding that people without hair should use a little more. 

"That means your 3-ounce tube of sunscreen is only three applications," Daveluy said. "Most people are not using that amount."

How much SPF do you need in a sunscreen?

The American Academy of Dermatology Association recommends your sunscreen be SPF 30 or higher. It also recommends you look for sunscreen that has broad-spectrum protection (it protects against UVA and UVB rays) and make sure it's water-resistant. 

"If you follow the recommendations for the proper amount of sunscreen, then SPF 30 is great," Daveluy said. If you think you're skimping on the layers, though, a higher SPF could offer more benefit. He added that he generally recommends looking for at least SPF 50 or 60. 

Read more:   Don't Sweat It: These Clothes Can Help You Stay Cool Amid High Temperatures  

Does skin tone matter when choosing an SPF? 

People with darker skin tones have more melanin, which does offer some protection from the sun's damaging rays. For this reason, skin cancer rates in people of color are lower than rates in white people, but the risk isn't zero. Research also suggests that people of color may be more likely to experience a missed or late diagnosis of skin cancer , making outcomes more dangerous. (It's also important to note that melanoma can have other causes besides exposure to sunlight or UV rays, and can show up in areas not typically exposed to sun.)

"SPF 30 is the minimum for everyone," Daveluy said. He added that tinted sunscreens may be a better fit for darker skin tones, leaving less of a white cast. 

"If you have very fair skin, the higher [SPF] numbers may be a good idea, especially if you aren't using the proper amount, because you will see the consequences of underuse more easily," Daveluy said. 

Are there any sunscreen or SPF 'red flags'?

As long as you're wearing a minimum of SPF 30, applying it properly, and also looking for products that are broad spectrum and water resistant, you've got the basics down. Daveluy added that for people with sensitive skin, finding a mineral sunscreen with "active ingredients of zinc and/or titanium" may be a good choice.

Daveluy pointed out other measures of protecting yourself from the sun, including wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sun-protective clothing and hanging out in the shade when possible. But don't forget that sunscreen has a proven safety record going on decades, he said.

"The biggest red flags for sunscreen are any people or reports that try to tell you sunscreen isn't safe," Daveluy said. 

Read more: Are You Applying Enough Sunscreen?  

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ARTS & CULTURE

Kurt vonnegut’s advice to college graduates is still relevant.

To his adoring young fans in the 1960s and ‘70s, the anti-establishment novelist was the father they wished they had

Susan Farrell, The Conversation

Kurt Vonnegut didn’t deliver the famous “Wear Sunscreen” graduation speech published in the Chicago Tribune that was often mistakenly attributed to the celebrated author. But he could have.

Over his lifetime, he gave dozens of quirky commencement addresses. In those speeches, he made some preposterous claims. But they made people laugh and made them think. They were speeches the graduates remembered.

Having studied and written about Vonnegut for years, I wish he had been my commencement speaker. I graduated from Austin College, a small school in North Texas. I don’t even remember who gave my class’ graduation speech, much less a single word the speaker said. I suspect many others have had—and will have—similar experiences.

Young people, college students especially, loved Vonnegut. During the early and mid-1960s, he commanded an avid and devoted following on campuses before he had produced any best sellers. Why was a middle-aged writer born in 1922 adored by a counterculture told not to trust anyone over 30 ? Why did he continue to appeal to younger generations until his death?

Their parents’ generation

Vonnegut, who died just before commencement season in 2007, was nearly 50 years old when his groundbreaking antiwar novel, Slaughterhouse-Five , was published in 1969.

A cultural touchstone, the novel changed the way Americans think and write about war. It helped usher in the postmodern style of literature with its playful, fragmented form, its insistence that reality is not objective and that history is not monolithic, and its self-reflection on its own status as art. Like Andy Warhol’s soup cans, Slaughterhouse-Five , with its jokes, drawings, risqué limericks and flying saucers, blurs the line between high and low culture .

Cited as one of the top novels of the 20th century, Slaughterhouse-Five has been transformed into film, theatrical plays, a graphic novel and visual art. It has inspired rock bands and musical interpretations. Vonnegut’s recurring refrain, “So it goes,” used 106 times in the novel, has entered the popular lexicon. The book has been banned, burned and censored .

In many ways, though, Vonnegut had more in common with the parents of the college students he addressed than with the students themselves. Father to six children—three of his own and three nephews who joined the family after his sister, Alice, and her husband died—Vonnegut had studied biochemistry at Cornell University and had worked in corporate public relations. He continued to believe all his life in the civic virtues he learned as a student at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis.

He had the credibility of a World War II veteran, a member of what journalist Tom Brokaw would later call the “ Greatest Generation .” Captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, he was sent to Dresden as a prisoner of war . There he was starved, beaten and put to work as a slave laborer. He survived the Allied firebombing of the city in February 1945 and was forced to help excavate hundreds of bodies of men, women and children who had been burned alive, suffocated and crushed to death.

Fool or philosopher?

If Vonnegut was, like the students’ fathers, a family man and a veteran, perhaps he also embodied the dad that students in 1969 dreamed their own fathers could be: funny, artistic, anti-establishment and antiwar.

Vonnegut had the look—sad, kind eyes under that mop of uncontrollable hair, the full droopy mustache. A photo taken just before he delivered a commencement address at Bennington College in 1970 shows him wearing a loud striped jacket, reading glasses tucked neatly in its pocket, with a cigarette dangling at his fingertips.

Looking like a cross between Albert Einstein and a carnival huckster, Vonnegut had his contradictions on full display.

Was he a clown or a wise man? A fool or a philosopher?

The literary establishment did not quite know what to make of Vonnegut, either. A writer frequently dismissed by critics for his flying saucers and space aliens, for the simplicity of his prose, for pandering to what one reviewer called the “minimally intelligent young,” he was also praised for his inventiveness, for his lively and playful language, for the depth of feeling behind the zaniness, and for advocating decency and kindness in a chaotic world.

A forceful defense of art

As the United States was fighting what most college students believed was an unjust and imperialist war in Vietnam, Vonnegut’s message struck home. He used his own experience in World War II to destroy any notion of a good war.

“For all the sublimity of the cause for which we fought, we surely created a Belsen of our own,” he lamented , referencing the Nazi concentration camp.

The military-industrial complex, he told the graduates at Bennington , treats people and their children and their cities like garbage. Instead, Americans should spend money on hospitals and housing and schools and Ferris wheels rather than on war machinery.

In the same speech, Vonnegut playfully urged young people to defy their professors and fancy educations by clinging to superstition and untruth, especially what he considered the most ridiculous lie of all—“that humanity is at the center of the universe, the fulfiller or the frustrater of the grandest dreams of God Almighty.”

Vonnegut conceded that the military was probably right about the “contemptibility of man in the vastness of the universe.” Still, he denied that contemptibility and begged students to deny it as well by creating art. Art puts human beings at the center of the universe, whether they belong there or not, allowing people to imagine and create a saner, kinder, more just world than the one we really live in.

The generations, he told students at the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1978, are not that far apart and do not want that much from each other. Older people want credit for having survived so long—and often imaginatively—under difficult conditions. Younger people want to be acknowledged and respected. He urged each group not to be so “intolerably stingy” about giving the other credit.

A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. He witnessed the worst that human beings could do to one another, and he made no secret about his fears for the future of a planet suffering from environmental degradation and a widening divide between the rich and the poor.

If Vonnegut were alive and giving commencement speeches today, he would be speaking to college students whose parents and even grandparents he may have addressed in the past. Today’s graduates have lived through the Covid-19 pandemic and are drowning in social media. They face high housing costs and financial instability , and they’re more depressed and anxious than previous generations.

I’m sure he would give these students the advice he gave so often over the years: to focus, in the midst of chaos, on what makes life worth living, to recognize the joyful moments—maybe by listening to music or drinking a glass of lemonade in the shade—and saying out loud, as his Uncle Alex taught him , “If this isn’t nice, what is?”

This article is republished from  The Conversation  under a Creative Commons license. Read the  original article .

Susan Farrell is a professor of English at College of Charleston

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What’s keeping the U.S. from allowing better sunscreens?

• Michael Scaturro, KFF Health News

When dermatologist Adewole “Ade” Adamson sees people spritzing sunscreen as if it’s cologne at the pool where he lives in Austin, Texas, he wants to intervene. “My wife says I shouldn’t,” he said, “even though most people rarely use enough sunscreen.”

At issue is not just whether people are using enough sunscreen, but what ingredients are in it.

The Food and Drug Administration’s ability to approve the chemical filters in sunscreens that are sold in countries such as Japan, South Korea, and France is hamstrung by a 1938 U.S. law that requires sunscreens to be tested on animals and classified as drugs, rather than as cosmetics as they are in much of the world. So Americans are not likely to get those better sunscreens — which block the ultraviolet rays that can cause skin cancer and lead to wrinkles — in time for this summer, or even the next.

Sunscreen makers say that requirement is unfair because companies including BASF Corp. and L’Oréal , which make the newer sunscreen chemicals, submitted safety data on sunscreen chemicals to the European Union authorities some 20 years ago.

Steven Goldberg, a retired vice president of BASF, said companies are wary of the FDA process because of the cost and their fear that additional animal testing could ignite a consumer backlash in the European Union, which bans animal testing of cosmetics, including sunscreen. The companies are asking Congress to change the testing requirements before they take steps to enter the U.S. marketplace.

In a rare example of bipartisanship last summer, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, thanked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for urging the FDA to speed up approvals of new, more effective sunscreen ingredients. Now a bipartisan bill is pending in the House that would require the FDA to allow non-animal testing.

“It goes back to sunscreens being classified as over-the-counter drugs,” said Carl D’Ruiz, a senior manager at DSM-Firmenich, a Switzerland-based maker of sunscreen chemicals. “It’s really about giving the U.S. consumer something that the rest of the world has. People aren’t dying from using sunscreen. They’re dying from melanoma.”

Every hour, at least two people die of skin cancer in the United States. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in America, and 6.1 million adults are treated each year for basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The nation’s second-most-common cancer, breast cancer, is diagnosed about 300,000 times annually , though it is far more deadly.

Dermatologists Offer Tips on Keeping Skin Safe and Healthy

– Stay in the shade during peak sunlight hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daylight time.– Wear hats and sunglasses. – Use UV-blocking sun umbrellas and clothing. – Reapply sunscreen every two hours.You can order overseas versions of sunscreens from online pharmacies such as Cocooncenter in France. Keep in mind that the same brands may have different ingredients if sold in U.S. stores. But importing your sunscreen may not be affordable or practical. “The best sunscreen is the one that you will use over and over again,” said Jane Yoo , a New York City dermatologist.

Though skin cancer treatment success rates are excellent, 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer by age 70. The disease costs the health care system $8.9 billion a year , according to CDC researchers. One study found that the annual cost of treating skin cancer in the United States more than doubled from 2002 to 2011, while the average annual cost for all other cancers increased by just 25%. And unlike many other cancers, most forms of skin cancer can largely be prevented — by using sunscreens and taking other precautions.

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But a heavy dose of misinformation has permeated the sunscreen debate, and some people question the safety of sunscreens sold in the United States, which they deride as “chemical” sunscreens. These sunscreen opponents prefer “physical” or “mineral” sunscreens, such as zinc oxide, even though all sunscreen ingredients are chemicals.

“It’s an artificial categorization,” said E. Dennis Bashaw, a retired FDA official who ran the agency’s clinical pharmacology division that studies sunscreens.

Still, such concerns were partly fed by the FDA itself after it published a study that said some sunscreen ingredients had been found in trace amounts in human bloodstreams. When the FDA said in 2019 , and then again two years later , that older sunscreen ingredients needed to be studied more to see if they were safe, sunscreen opponents saw an opening, said Nadim Shaath , president of Alpha Research & Development, which imports chemicals used in cosmetics.

“That’s why we have extreme groups and people who aren’t well informed thinking that something penetrating the skin is the end of the world,” Shaath said. “Anything you put on your skin or eat is absorbed.”

Adamson, the Austin dermatologist, said some sunscreen ingredients have been used for 30 years without any population-level evidence that they have harmed anyone. “The issue for me isn’t the safety of the sunscreens we have,” he said. “It’s that some of the chemical sunscreens aren’t as broad spectrum as they could be, meaning they do not block UVA as well. This could be alleviated by the FDA allowing new ingredients.”

Ultraviolet radiation falls between X-rays and visible light on the electromagnetic spectrum. Most of the UV rays that people come in contact with are UVA rays that can penetrate the middle layer of the skin and that cause up to 90% of skin aging, along with a smaller amount of UVB rays that are responsible for sunburns .

The sun protection factor, or SPF, rating on American sunscreen bottles denotes only a sunscreen’s ability to block UVB rays. Although American sunscreens labeled “broad spectrum” should, in theory, block UVA light, some studies have shown they fail to meet the European Union’s higher UVA-blocking standards.

“It looks like a number of these newer chemicals have a better safety profile in addition to better UVA protection,” said David Andrews , deputy director of Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that researches the ingredients in consumer products. “We have asked the FDA to consider allowing market access.”

The FDA defends its review process and its call for tests of the sunscreens sold in American stores as a way to ensure the safety of products that many people use daily, rather than just a few times a year at the beach.

“Many Americans today rely on sunscreens as a key part of their skin cancer prevention strategy, which makes satisfactory evidence of both safety and effectiveness of these products critical for public health,” Cherie Duvall-Jones, an FDA spokesperson, wrote in an email.

D’Ruiz’s company, DSM-Firmenich, is the only one currently seeking to have a new over-the-counter sunscreen ingredient approved in the United States. The company has spent the past 20 years trying to gain approval for bemotrizinol , a process D’Ruiz said has cost $18 million and has advanced fitfully, despite attempts by Congress in 2014 and 2020 to speed along applications for new UV filters.

Bemotrizinol is the bedrock ingredient in nearly all European and Asian sunscreens, including those by the South Korean brand Beauty of Joseon and Bioré , a Japanese brand.

D’Ruiz said bemotrizinol could secure FDA approval by the end of 2025. If it does, he said, bemotrizinol would be the most vetted and safest sunscreen ingredient on the market, outperforming even the safety profiles of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.

As Congress and the FDA debate, many Americans have taken to importing their own sunscreens from Asia or Europe, despite the risk of fake products .

“The sunscreen issue has gotten people to see that you can be unsafe if you’re too slow,” said Alex Tabarrok , a professor of economics at George Mason University. “The FDA is just incredibly slow. They’ve been looking at this now literally for 40 years. Congress has ordered them to do it, and they still haven’t done it.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.

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