Sun shine..............who to believe

[veronica]

nooo.......... but it gives a tremendous feeling of well being.....and the sand can do the reflexology thing.

[Moorf]

After the blue jellyfish thread I'm not going anywhere near the water unless I can SEE :eek

[toesonthenose]

I am a melanoma survivor myself, so I would definitely cover up. It was 0.3mm deep (yes that said 0.3mm), so I am stage 1, with a 96% chance of surviving 5 years. Melanoma is staged in part by its depth of infiltration into the skin. It must be caught early! At 0.76mm one would be stage 2, with a 70% chance of surviving 5 years, at 1.5mm deep it is Stage 3 with 5 year survival well below 50%, Stage 4 20% etc. Those who observe that skin cancer was rare prior to sunscreen make many errors in examing the epidemiology of melanoma. Our ourdoor lifestyles, tanning salons, depletion of our protective ozone layer, and others put us all at risk for health problems linked to UV radiation. Not just melanoma, but also immunosuppresion,pterygium (white fleshy bump on the surface of the eye, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma. BTW I am 2 years cancer free this month. I am also 37 with 3 boys under age 10.

[veronica]

toes on the nose. just for the record what sort of skin tone and hair colour do you have. The very name you have picked let alone your location would lead me to believe that you have had a lot more sun exposure than us UK people.

[toesonthenose]

Blond, blue eyes, Fin ancestry, grew up in Michigan woth lots of unprotected sun exposure. Now in Hawaii for 10 years with lots of sun protection and no burns in my time here. While the UK may not have melanoma rates of Hawaii or NZ, rates are climbing. And all of the British posters on this forum who long for the BBQ and barefeet of NZ will also need to be aware and vigilant against the sun for their childrens safety in the NZ sun.
PS. Toes on the nose refers to a style of longboard surfing were you "Hang ten", or curl your toes over the nose of the board while the wave holds down the back of the board, a very enlightening experience!

[veronica]

Best thing of all is not to lay out in the sun when the sun is at its hottest, its what we did in Australia and I can't ever remember getting burnt there. So far here I haven't worn any sun cream at all and I haven't burnt or got very brown either, tend to sit in the shade in the middle of the day. Its different with kids as they want to be out playing but loose longleeved stuff works too. At the hostel here we have taken to warning all new arrivals to take it easy with the sun as most people end up getting a bit pink at the end of their first day and thats usually just from walking about the town.

[Jo and Andy]

I agree, you just have to be careful, in the shade in the middle of the day, and irritating your kids the rest of it, YES YOU MUST WEAR SUNSCREEN IF YOU ARE SWIMMING, is my constant chant on holiday, but used P20 on a couple of days and were were fine, sticky all morning but fine.

Glad you are free Toes on the Nose. I will keep aware of all my moles,

[Mildred]

When I was a kid we used to be given Silversun tablets to take on hot days. They stopped you getting sunburnt. Last year I had a patch of skin frozen off my face which the dermatologist said was sun damage. I asked him whether Silversun tablets were taken off the market because of safety reasons and he said he felt it was more to do with sun creams being marketed better. Apparently these tablets were first used for cabin crew on long haul flights.

Funnily enough just read in today's Daily Mail that tablets are being brought out to protect against sunburn. Perhaps they are they same as I took as a kid. (Prior to the tablets I used to burn so bad that I had blisters everywhere unless I wore a T-shirt and this was just on the Isle of Wight).

[Moorf]

In case any of you out there are concerned about a mole or mark and want to get it checked out, there are a number of Mole Clinics in NZ...

Here's one.. cost of a "scan" is $125 - not bad for piece of mind imho.

http://www.molecheck.co.nz/skin.html

I purposely didn't post the "home" page for the above site as I found it a bit "in yer face" ops:

[Gran]

Look around you guys, look at the older people, you will see the sun damage, I think it creeps up on you, I have used sun cream as a moisturiser since 1970, I never look outside and say "I wont need it today" just put it on rain or shine. These days you dont need to use sun cream because most of the moisturisers have sun protection in them, so just look for that SPF on the jar. The NZ sun is a killer.