From MD Anderson Cancer Center. (aka MD Anderson Center). “SPF means “sun protection factor”
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Dean of the Blogfinger Off-shore School of Medicine in Ocean Grove, NJ. author of the famous medical article: “The Parking Derangement Syndrome.”
In my late teens I worked summers at a resort hotel in the Catskill Mountains. (“The Borscht Belt.). My job was to run around all day in shorts, Hotel Nemerson T- shirts and sunglasses as a member of the athletic staff, organizing volleybal, basketball, hand ball, and softball games, being sociable with the new guests (Wowee!) and suffering sun exposure as a side effect. My nose was always peeling, so I would put thick schmeers of white zinc oxide on, and the guests called me “Chief White Nose.”
Anyhow, we didn’t know anything about the sun risks, and I don’t think they had invented sunscreens back then. They barely had just invented the wheel. I think they may have had Coppertone—the emphasis was on getting a tan and not avoiding skin damage. I remember the women lying all day by the pool “working on” their tans, and if they were really dark, they were much admired.
So then I became a doctor and learned about skin cancer, but very little about prevention. Of course now we all know about using sunblocks, hats, clothes, etc. to reduce exposure to the sun. But the sunscreen thing has been a bit of a mystery—even now. We don’t really know how protective they are and how to use them properly. The SPF numbers remain somewhat of a mystery. And how long do they last and how heavy should they be applied?
Have you gone shopping lately for a sunscreen? You could spend an hour and a half reading labels and still not be sure what to get. So you choose a product with an SPF of 1,000. But, it turns out that over SPF 30 is of dubious usefulness. If you are at a the beach, reapply sun screen every two hours.
Did you know that melanoma cancers are on the rise ?
Attention must be paid!
In today’s New York Times (5/29/13) there is an excellent discussion of this subject called, “New Rules For Sunscreen” by Roni Caryn Rabin. The piece includes a review of the latest FDA labeling rules , so below is a link. I recommend that you read it and then smear your entire body with large globs of sunscreen and don’t go into the midday sun, because only mad dogs and Englishmen do that.
LINK : “New Rules for Sunscreen” NY Times May 29, 2013
LINK. 2025 update from the MD Anderson Center. (Cancer specialists. aka MD ANDERSON CANCER CENTER. in Texas.
MD Anderson discussion of spf—-“sun protection factor.”
BILLIE HOLIDAY: Life may not be so sweet on the sunny side of the street.