Skin Cancer Prevention: Don’t Fry Day

This Friday is The National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention’s “Don’t Fry Day”!  As the sun’s UV rays increase in strength with the onset of summer, it is important to protect your skin from premature aging, wrinkles, and skin cancer without compromising your general health.  Safe and effective sunscreen formulations will be high in minerals (e.g. zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) and antioxidants, without containing potentially harmful ingredients such as oxybenzone, retinyl palmitate and parabens.  Ideally, a broad-spectrum suncreen with SPF 30 or above should be applied at least a half hour before exposure to give it time to penetrate the skin, and then re-applied at least every 2 hours (more often if in the water or sweating heavily).  This applies to water-resistant products as well.  The best protection?  Stay in the shade, and/or wear SPF rated protective clothing, a wide-brimmed hat, and sunglasses!