GREENSBURG — The season of cookouts and softball, of biking, hiking, lawn mowing, camping, swimming, vacations, yard work, tank tops, halter tops, swimsuits and bikinis is almost upon us.
Summer, with its sunny skies, heat-waves and endless outdoor pursuits is coming to Decatur County. That means more time in the sun, more time tanning, baking and burning in the heat. Increased sun exposure, of course, means an increased risk of developing skin cancer. Many Decatur Countians, however, may not realize how MUCH of an increased risk sun exposure brings with it.
According to Decatur County Memorial Hospital (DCMH) manager of Cancer Care Cindy Daihl, sun exposure is the number one reason people develop skin cancer.
With May being the penultimate month before summer then, it’s a good time to remind summer devotees everywhere of the public-health menace that is skin cancer. May is national Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and Daihl, along with DCMH Cancer Care nurses Jeanna Nobbe and Emily McNulty, recently sat down with the Daily News to talk about the types of skin cancer, the risks of developing it and the steps people can take to protect themselves and decrease their risks of developing this potentially deadly form of cancer.
Skin cancer awareness is especially important in Decatur County, Daihl said, because “we live in a rural community. There are a lot of people here who spend their days and hours outdoors – farmers construction workers, garbage collectors, some postal workers and sun worshipers.”
Unfortunately, there are also a lot of tanning bed users in Decatur County. Tanning bed use, of course, is a problem that extends beyond summer, but, during summer, many sun worshippers tend to use outdoor tanning in conjunction with indoor.
“The irony is that a lot of people consider a tan to be a healthy look,” Daihl said, “when in fact you’re doing a lot of damage to your skin.”
According to www.skincancer.org, “Just one indoor tanning session increases users’ chances of developing melanoma by 20 percent, and each additional session during the same year boosts the risk almost another two percent.”
More strikingly, the site notes, “Of melanoma cases among 18-to-29-year-olds who had tanned indoors, 76 percent were attributable to tanning bed use.”
Tanning bed use and outdoor sun exposure, Daihl said, are equally dangerous. The difference, she added, lies in the fact that the UV radiation from a tanning bed is a lot closer to the skin, much more immediate and requires less time to produce a tan and thus damage the skin.
The three nurses agreed that, when it comes to tanning using UV radiation, whether indoors or out, “there is no better option.”
If a person is determined to tan regardless of the risks and side effects, Nobbe recommended they at least use sunscreen, as doing so provides a certain degree of protection against burning, which is probably the single most damaging injury human skin can suffer.
“You never want to burn,” Daihl said. “You just peel off [outer layers of skin] and that damages the skin. You’re opening up skin that’s not ready. That skin underneath the peeled-away skin is ‘baby skin.’ It’s tender; it doesn’t have as much collagen; it’s not as mature.”
Skin, she added, is both the body’s largest organ and its first line of defense against infection. “You increase your chances of infection by burning – and not just to the skin.”
Nobbe further recommended forgoing UV tanning altogether and instead using a spray tanning product. Spray-tan users should be careful to investigate the ingredients contained in the product, she added. “If it has a vegetable base – especially carotene (which is derived from carrots) – it’s probably safe.”
Laying in the sun or in a tanning bed or simply not using sunscreen carries other risks beyond skin cancer, the three nurses noted. Among those, Daihl said, are premature aging, significantly more wrinkles, dryness, cracking, age spots, sun spots and blisters.
“You’re skin loses elasticity,” she said, “because it’s been baked. It gets leathery. People who regularly tan – they definitely do look older.”
Although according to the American Cancer Society, “skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer,” not all skin cancers are created equal.
Www.skincancer.org notes that, “basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer,” followed by squamous cell carcinoma and then by melanoma. Basal cell carcinoma is the least serious skin cancer, rarely resulting in death, while squamous cell is slightly more dangerous, with a mortality rate of around 2 percent.
Melanoma is, hands down, the most deadly skin cancer. Although it’s also the least common form, however, the American Academy of Dermatology (www.aad.org) warns that it’s the overall most common cancer type in the 25-to-29 age group and is the second most common overall type among the 15-to-29 age group.
Melanoma, Daihl said, is the most aggressive form of skin cancer. “It can go metastatic. Basal won’t go metastatic at all. Squamous can grow on the skin, but it won’t go systemic. Basal is the ‘friendliest’ skin cancer, because if you get it diagnosed and they remove it, the likelihood of it growing back is slim.”
People with fair hair and multiple freckles or moles tend to be at a higher risk for developing any type of skin cancer, the three nurses agreed, as are people who spend a great deal of time outdoors.
Although darker skinned people are certainly less likely to suffer sunburn or to develop skin cancer, the trio insisted that having a dark complexion doesn’t completely negate skin cancer risk. Anyone who works outside or otherwise spends a great deal of time in the sun should regularly wear sunscreen. Then again, ANYONE should regularly sunscreen, they added.
In addition to regularly wearing sunscreen, wearing a hat can also help protect against sun exposure. Consequently, Daihl added, sunscreen should have an SPF rating of between 30 and 50. There’s no clinical evidence to suggest that anything above 50 confers any additional protection, she said.
The three nurses agreed that anyone with a higher-than-average number of moles should be regularly screened for skin cancer, as moles that change color, size or shape are a possible indicator of melanoma.
Patients who’ve already developed melanoma once, have a likelihood of recurrence, too, Daihl said.
DCMH offers a yearly free, community-wide skin-cancer screening each May, but this year’s event is already full.
Decatur Countians can still obtain a free skin cancer screening, however, at the upcoming annual DCMH Healthy Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., June 25, at Greensburg Elementary School, DCMH marketing coordinator Lynzee McDowall told the Daily News.
“If you have a spot or a mole you’re worried about; if you have a lot of exposure to the sun,” Daihl said, “you might want to come get screened. It doesn’t take long. There’s no scan; it’s just the dermatologist’s eyeballs.”
“People die from melanoma,” she added. “It’s no joke. But just because people die … doesn’t mean everyone does; it IS possible to catch this early. Early detection is the key in any type of cancer.”
McDowall also welcomed Decatur Countians seeking a doctor to check a specific mole or spot, to call the hospital’s physician referral line at 663-3100. The service is available 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. “I answer that line and I will return the call if you leave contact information,” she said.