Nothing is more joyful than swimming in a balmy summer day. Summer holiday is near its end, many yourths should have prepared for the school with bronzed skin. But while we’re enjoying sun tanning, do we realize that excessive sun exposure causes more harm than good to our body?

Adequate sun exposure is important to our health. The ultraviolet component in sun light is needed by our skin to synthesize vitamin D, which is essential for the growth and maintance of our bone. Nevertheless, excessive sun exposure also damage our skin. Almost everyone of us have experienced sun burn before. The reddness develops immediately after intense sun exposure is the signal of the first degree burn. If you stay under the sun longer, you will feel burning and painful on your skin. And the upper few layers of your skin will slough off in the following week. This is the second degree burn. Sun burn itself rarely has long term problem. But chronic sun exposure can give rise to freckles, increase the aging process of the skin, and worst of all skin cancers.

It has been confirmed that intermittent intense sun exposure is more likely to cause skin cancers than long term exposure. That means if you like to go the beach for sun tanning just every summer, you have a higher chance to get skin cancer than you do it regularly thoughout a year. Age is also critical. The effect of the sun on our skin is more pronounce during our teenages. And the harmful effect will not appear until we get old.

So we should develop a habit of sun protection since we are young.