My parents are off to Italy today. Lucky ducks.

The point of this post, though, is that I called them yesterday to check in one more time before they left, to make sure that Grandma was being taken care of while they're gone, someone responsible is being left in charge of the house, they're all packed up, etc., and I found out that my grandma had surgery last week for skin cancer. Yup. Turns out she is left with an inch and a half incision in her arm where they did what they had to do.

What can I say? WEAR SUNSCREEN.

Other sunburn-related resources:
An Introduction to Skin Cancer
Skin Cancer: An Undeclared Epidemic
Thwarting Skin Cancer with Sun Sense
Prevention of Skin Cancer
The CDC site for skin cancer
The Relationship of Skin Cancer Prevalence and the Increase in Ultraviolet-B Exposure due to Ozone Depletion
These are just a few of the results that come from a search on sunburn skin cancer.

Being brown is not a defense against sun damage. No, it's not. You may not be as likely to get it as I am, but it does not mean that you are immune. No, it doesn't.

Did you know that although tanning salons will make much of the fact that they use only the less harmful form of UV radiation, they use so much of it that it's worse for you than if you spent as much time outside?

"There is no such thing as a safe tan," said Dr. Whitmore. "A suntan is the skin’s response to an injury and every time you tan you accumulate damage to the skin, as well as accelerating the aging process and increasing your risk for skin cancer.