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No safe tan: Why Canada’s sunburn problem keeps getting worse (theconversation.com)

submitted 1 week ago by new_otters_raft@piefed.ca to c/health@lemmy.world

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Scroll through social media and you will encounter a strange vocabulary for an old impulse: “tanmaxxing,” “UV chasing” and “SPF shunning.” In some corners of the internet, sunscreen is described as toxic, while a “natural” tan is portrayed as protective.

As a dermatologist and skin-cancer researcher, and a medical student, we find the misinformation troubling. But after years studying Canadian sun behaviour, our team has concluded that correcting myths alone will not solve the problem.

TikTok may have invented the term “tanmaxxing,” but it didn’t invent the desire to be tanned.

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[–] DrBob@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 week ago

Here's the core issue: people like me just don't care. I have heard sun safety messages for decades. I taught in a med school for many years and have seen all the evidence and blah blah blah. And I still don't care. Skin cancers are easily identifiable and respond well to treatment. And I enjoy being outside.

I wear sunscreen but don't reapply it often enough, and will go shirtless sometimes to avoid the dreaded farmer tan. I'm 60 and not trying to pretend I'm a teenager. The cancer that scares me are the organ cancers that linger undetected.