Sunburns are much more deadly than people realize

by Sam Powell

“I remember the pain like it was yesterday,” said Bruce Hutchins speaking on his skin condition he got from constant sunburns. Hutchins never wore sunblock growing up, and when he was in his mid-thirties, he was diagnosed with skin-cancer. He felt constant burning on his back, had rashes across his back and his arms, and spent the next 20 years of his life in liquid nitrogen cryotherapy recovering.

Hutchins is one of many people who never understood the seriousness of sunburns and the long-term effects they can have on a person’s body. Sunburns leave lasting impacts on the body by causing rashes, swelling, and raise the chances of developing skin cancer.

The Skin Cancer Foundation reports that one in five people will be diagnosed with skin cancer at some point in their lives. They also report on average two people die of skin cancer each hour of the day in the US. The rarest, but most deadly form of skin cancer is melanoma.

(Photo: Seigel Photography)

Left untreated, melanomas on the skin can spread to the lung and the liver, causing potential death within a year. The CDC reports that in 2017, 8,056 primary causes of death were from skin cancer. The CDC also reports that melanoma cases have rose drastically from 1999 to present day. The statistics show that in this time, on average per 100,000 citizens, diagnosis of melanoma have risen from 15.2 to 22.7 citizens.

While many people do wear sunblock, according to the National Health Interview Survey, just 10.1% of students in high school wear proper sunblock. As people age, statistics show people begin to wear sunblock much more often, but not nearly as many students are learning about the risks they take without protection from the sun.

Emma Daniels, a health science major, said in an in-person interview, “I don’t get why students don’t wear it (sunblock). I go out with all my friends and I feel like a parent telling them to wear it while we are at the beach.” Daniels is one of few students who have properly learned about the results of consistent sunburns, hoping her advice to her friends may save their lives