Safe sunning - UV info

Safe tanning to me is an oxymoron. How safe can it ever be lying out bareskin to a hydrogen bomb blast? That's what the Sun is. And as with all radiation, the Sun's ultraviolet light exposure is cumulative over our lifetimes. Only reason most of us don't suffer any ill effect from our exposure is the human animal doesn't live long enough. If we lived on average another 50 or so years we would.

If you wanna go out to swim or sun do so during off-peak hours. Most people don't use sunblock properly putting it on a moment before jumping in the pool or before lying down to tan. Most advise putting it on half an hour before any solar exposure. And the rule of thumb is the SPF rating is however many minutes before the next application. SPF 15 means putting it on again every 15 minutes and so on. Also, around water you can get up to twice the dose as the UV reflects off the water.

Some good news. Clouds block harmful UV A and B radiation (there's a type C but it's blocked by our atmosphere.) If it's overcast the exposure to negligible.

Depending on where you are, peak levels for the day are usually between 11am and 3pm. Though amounts during off-peak add up too. Good little website here monitors local UV levels for safer outdoor recreation, suggest people use it or another doing the same thing.

http://www.uvawareness.com/uv-index/uv-forecasts.php

Or you can all ignore it, get skin cancer and die.