The ‘70s: Spring afternoons in the park flipping the Frisbee with Max Curry Jr. without our shirts. Harvest in June, and the famous “farmer tan” followed by lying out at the Alva Pool to impress the girls. All this and more sun tanning before sunscreen was developed. We used baby oil to improve our tan while getting that all-over shiny look so coveted by the beach bums. “California’s got the sun and the girls all get so tan.”
Often referred to as “getting a good color” or a “healthy glow,” it was really exposure that would manifest itself in later years as damaged skin, skin that looked older than it was, aged greater yet by the cigarettes we smoked. Tanning beds increased the risk so many of us suffer from basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, which are cancers but less life threatening, to melanoma, the spread of which causes a death every 54 minutes in this country.
We were all 10 feet tall and bullet proof,” but overexposure to UV radiation is so dangerous that the World Health Organization has declared it a Class 1 carcinogen, placing it alongside plutonium and tobacco. Sunscreen of SPF 30 or greater offers protection but only extends time in the sun after which damage still occurs. As the ozone is depleted and carbon increases, the incidence of harmful radiation soars.
It’s our responsibility to instill good sun-damage risk-reduction by setting a good example and starting our children on sunscreen early as a daily regimen.
(Beach Boys: “California Girls,” Travis Tritt: “Ten Feet Tall and Bullet Proof”)
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