The 4th of July is Thursday, which means Michiganders will head on vacation, lay by the lake or pool, and take in plenty of sunshine. However, that comes with a warning from health experts.
Excessive exposure to the sun could cause health problems later in life. Children’s Hospital of Michigan pediatrician Dr. Kevin Dazy says getting a nice tan isn’t always a good thing.
“That tan or that darkening of the skin, really that’s the skin’s natural reaction sort of trying to protect itself from exposure to sunlight or UV light is one way to think about it,” Dazy said. “It’s not necessarily a great thing that your body is having to do that, but it’s sort of like a natural reaction in some sense.”
Dazy says excessive UV exposure is responsible for more than 90% of skin cancers. More than 9,500 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with skin cancer every day.
