Burnt Toes
It's another warm day here in Denmark, 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) to be exact. I'm not taking advantage of the good weather really, because I'm still tanned from Thailand. I see people outside of my window roasting in the sun which got me thinking about sunscreen. We may be heading to the south of France this summer and the last time I was there it was so dry that the forests were burning and air-conditioners were copping out.
I don't really like to get tanned. In fact, in Thailand I smeared a factor 30 sunscreen on my skin every two seconds. It didn't really help though. I didn't get burned but I know I still did some damage to the skin. Actually, come to think of it my feet ended up burnt and now they are as dry as dirt. Most people know that overexposure to the sun causes skin cancer. We have a real problem with skin cancer over here in Scandinavia, as they do in Australia. I find that a bit odd because most Danes I know seem pretty health conscious. When I was in Thailand, I talked to one Thai girl who couldn't understand for the life of her why tourists wanted to spend the hottest time of the day roasting in the scorching sun.
Let's face it, most people want a tan because it looks good. I can remember when they introduced those "self tanners." I jumped on the bandwagon and it just ending up looking orange and streaky. I've heard that they've made improvements since those days but I haven't taken a chance with them since. The one thing I'm pretty sure of is all this sunbathing eventually catches up with us and leaves some pretty heavy duty tracks. Some researchers say that 90% of wrinkles are caused by the sun. Even light exposure to the sun breaks down collagen and causes wrinkles.
Experts say that despite the warnings, more and more young people are overexposing themselves to the sun. So the powers that be are failing to get the message across. Many of the ads warning about too much sun exposure are taking the "skin cancer" angle, but that's not working, obviously. How about appealing to people's sense of vanity? Show a wrinkled up, old before her time prune with leathery skin. That ought to do the trick.
The good news is that exposure to the sun in reasonable amounts is suppose to prevent breast cancer and also be good for your mental health. I read that La Roche-Posay Anthelios is supposed to be one of the best sunscreens on the market but it's banned in certain countries. The reason being, that it contains ingredients that aren't approved by the regulating bodies. Hmm...I'll see if I can get a hold of it. Until then, happy tanning.
