SAN ANTONIO – These hot summer months in San Antonio mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But for flag football player Julio Sanchez, it means the start of the season.
“We usually start playing outside around 9 a.m. and finish around 1 p.m. So it feels like it’s the hottest time of day with the sun beaming down on us,” he said. Sanchez says he won’t get onto the field without first putting on sunscreen.
Dr. Alexander Miller is a surgical oncologist at the START Center for Cancer Care and says he’s seen a troubling trend when it comes to people protecting their skin.
“We see more and more skin cancer in people in their 20′s and 30′s than ever before,” he said. “Years ago, decades ago, I don’t think it was as much of a problem as it is now”.
Dr. Miller attributes this to changing attitudes about sunscreen and a thinning ozone layer letting in more and more ultraviolet radiation (UV rays).
“Any time you’re going to be out in the sun outside for more than about 20 minutes at a time, you should protect your skin. And so that means wearing hats, wearing sunglasses, wearing protective clothing,” Miller says.
Miller encourages people to put on sunscreen of at least 50 sun protection power (SPF). Anything lower than that should be re-applied every couple of hours.