by Mike Miller

Created on: November 18, 2008   Last Updated: November 22, 2008

The real danger of sunlight to fair skin comes from Ultraviolet Radiation. Ultraviolet Radiation is an invisible, high energy, form of Electro-Magnetic wave that strikes Earth about 8 minutes after being emitted from the Sun. Ultraviolet Radiation from the Sun has the power to destroy all life on the surface of the Earth, as it has done to the planet Mars. To be truly informed, and protected, there are several scientific facts which need to be taken into careful consideration.

First, the amount of protection your skin (and your eyes!) require depends on an interplay of several crucial factors. For example: the amount of Ultraviolet Radiation to which you may be exposed VARIES immensely! It turns out that the Sun goes through an 11 year cycle of activity/inactivity that determines the amount of Ultraviolet Radiation the Sun radiates into Space. Quite literally, the Sun goes OFF and ON, invisibly, in both XRay and Ultraviolet wavelengths, although its visible brightness neither dims or brightens, most fortunately for Earth.

In 2003 the Sun was blasting invisible high energies into Space - this was that part of the cycle called "Solar Maximum." Two fair skinned colleagues of mine had skin cancers on their faces that year. They each lamented to me: "I protected myself like I always had." Yet they both failed to take into consideration that the amount of Ultraviolet Radiation they were receiving was more than they had received at any time in the previous 22 years! Extraordinary effort at skin protection was required that year; these colleagues of mine took only ordinary effort, and suffered the consequences.

Remember: the next Solar Maximum will be in the year 2025. The years prior to, and immediately after, Solar Maximum will also be times of intense Ultraviolet Radiation, and require greater protection from harm. Search online for graphs that show skin cancer rates by year and you will notice how skin cancers rose in the years approaching Solar Maximum in 2003, and soon after. You can expect that figure to go down in the years surrounding Solar Minimum....unless another crucial factor injects a wild card into projected skin cancer rates: Ozone levels.

The Second major factor determining the amount of Ultraviolet Radiation you may be receiving, and hence the kind and amount of protective measures you must take, is Stratospheric Ozone levels. Ozone in the upper atmosphere acts as a block to Ultraviolet Radiation. Without ozone in the upper atmosphere the molecular

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