by Tylisa Schadams

Created on: August 01, 2009

As beautiful and fun as summertime might be, precautions still must be taken to keep everyone safe and healthy. Sunburns, being as seasonal as the summer itself, are usually not taken as seriously as they should. A sunburn is caused when a person is overexposed to ultraviolet rays from the sun, tanning beds, or wielding arcs, only to name a few. Every person will sunburn at different rates, depending on their tone of skin. A very pale or fair skinned person may only take ten to fifteen minutes to sunburn.

While a more dark skinned person may take hours to sunburn.

The first step in treatment is recognizing the sunburn when the symptoms first start. A red like rash on your skin usually begins about two to six hours after the exposure. The rash will usually feel irritated, burn, and itch. Blisters may start to appear within hours, or within days. The blisters may be very small, or very large, just depending on the severity of the burn. Skin generally starts o peel about two to four days after the rash has started.

In very severe cases of sunburn, the person will begin to notice flu like symptoms. If experiencing the following symptoms, emergency help should be acquired: fever, nausea, cold and hot spells, chills, a fast beating and rapid pulse, dizziness, rapid breathing, or loss of consciousness. This type of sunburn is usually referred to as sun poisoning and is very dangerous. What people don't know is that sunburns like this can cause death.

Several medications are available to treat mild sunburns. An over the counter pain pill will help with the burning and pain, like Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen, and Aspirin. Antiseptics will be very handy in preventing infections and should be used several times a day, as well as cleaning the burn with antibacterial soaps. Spays or creams containing benzocain or lidocain will help soothe the burning. If you use any over the counter sunburn treatments, stop immediately and call your doctor if it only irritates your rash more.

The thing to remember with sunburns is that it is in fact a burn, and should be treated like one. Keep the rash cool with cold compresses. Use a towel or washcloth with cold water to cool the affected part of the skin. A cool bath is the best way to go, but not very many people like cool baths, so the damp towel is a good alternative. The most important advice is to don't peel or pick at the blisters, leave them intact and don't break them. This is the most damaging to your skin because it slows the healing process and makes you become susceptible to infectious bacteria. It can also leave scars on your skin when you peel off blisters. For children or adults who can't help but to pick at them, lightly wrapping some sterile gauze around the affected area with blisters can keep them from picking or itching at the blisters.

People obtain the most damage to their skin from the sun before they turn eighteen, putting children mainly at risk. Sunscreen is the essential part in preventing sunburn and other conditions that can arise from sun poisoning. Skin cancer is the leading type of cancer, sun burns, or sun exposure, being the cause. Children with a family history of skin cancer, or have fair skin, freckles, or moles, should be even more cautious because they have a higher risk of getting skin cancer when they are older.

Prevention is the key when it comes to sunburns. When you're heading for the great outdoors, make it a goal to set five minutes aside for everyone in your family to put on sunscreen. Better to be safe than sorry!

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