Teens and young adults should beware when outdoors in the Arizona sun.
There is a geographic variation in skin cancer incidences in different parts of the country.
“The incidences in southern states, with higher level of sun exposure such as Arizona, is higher than that in the northern states such as New Hampshire,” said Dr. Stephanie Schroeder, chief of Medical Staff at? Arizona State University’s Campus Health Service.
What teens and young adults may not know is that skin cancer is caused by the damage they do now.
“Most skin cancers show up over the age of 45, but the damage that leads to developing these cancers occurs in childhood and adolescence,” Schroeder said.
Arizona gets to be in the high 90’s often by the end of April, and stays so through mid-October, so many students dress accordingly.
“Almost all of my friends lay out by the pool on the weekends, and instead of using sunscreen they use tanning oil,” Brittany Ellish, an ASU junior said. “I myself go to tanning beds sometimes...everyone loves to look bronzed.”
Tanning beds and tanning outside are both damaging to the skin and increase the risks of skin cancer.
“Tanning beds, which emit UVA radiation, cause skin changes like those seen with sun damage,” Schroeder said.
She believes that students need more readily available information than what they are already told on the effects of skin cancer in order to start protecting themselves.
“The challenge is to help them understand that the consequence occurs 20 years later. They also need to know about alternatives to tanning,” she said.
There are safe sun-less alternatives to tanning beds and tanning outside, like bronzing creams and spray-on tans.
Tanning businesses have seen this trend in students turning to a safer way to look tan, without the sun damage, such as spray-on tans.
Schroeder has never diagnosed a case of skin cancer, but the primary care clinicians at ASU health center have diagnosed many cases of melanoma (generally the most serious form of skin cancer because it tends to spread throughout the body quickly) in the younger population of students.
The Health Center sends students with suspicious marks on their skin for biopsies to a dermatologist.
Reach the reporter at Jessy.Albaz@asu.edu.
