Sunscreen surprises

I’m not very good about using sunscreen, mostly because I figure it’s too late. The damage is done: I have lots of skin cancer and other unsightly sun-induced blemishes. I do use it on my face when I’m going to be outside for hours, hoping to keep my nose from getting any redder.

Scanning the shelves of sunscreen is all very bewildering. It’s hard to choose. I usually opt for a high SPF (Sun Protection Factor). It turns out there’s not much difference between high and low SPF. Sunscreen with SPF 15 blocks about 95 percent of all incoming UVB rays; those with SPF of 40 block 97 percent; etc. The higher SPF sunscreens do block more rays, but in actual use, it’s not clear if they’re that much more effective than the lower-rated ones.

It’s all very disheartening. According to my source, no sunscreen is effective for longer than two hours without reapplication. Plus you need a lot for it to be effective: two fingers-length of product applied to each of the “eleven areas of the body” for a day at the beach say Drs. Aaron E. Carroll and Rachel C. Vreeman, both pediatric doctors and professors. (They don’t specify those eleven areas.) In other words, to follow the recommended amount, you’d have to use up almost an entire bottle of sunscreen during your outing. Also, you should apply it thirty minutes before you go out in the sun to let the ingredients bind to the skin, then apply it again twenty minutes later. Apparently, these first two applications are the most effective.

What this says to me is, unless you follow these rigorous recommendations, the sunscreen isn’t helping all that much. And it’s all a terrific amount of bother. I maintain that there’s a big genetic component to skin cancer. How come my sister doesn’t have skin cancer? Or my husband? He has never used sunscreen and has no skin cancer, while his classmate from Fresno, where both grew up, has plenty of it. Like much else, it's the luck of the draw.

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