DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Keep Kids in Shade During the Summer

Shade your kids. Strong new evidence suggests overall sun exposure in childhood, not just burns, is a big key to who later develops deadly skin cancer. The news comes as the government is finishing long-awaited rules to improve sunscreens.

The Food and Drug Administration wants sunscreens to be rated not just for how well they block the ultraviolet-B rays that cause sunburn — today's SPF rankings — but for how well they protect against deeper-penetrating ultraviolet-A rays that are linked to cancer and wrinkles.

The proposed rules are undergoing a final review and should be issued in weeks, FDA policy director Jeff Shuren told The Associated Press. Still, sunscreen bottles won't look different any time soon: The proposal will be followed by a public comment period before going into effect.

New research into how the sun and genetics interact points to a possibly more important step consumers can take now to shield their children, and themselves: Check the weather forecast for the day's "UV index" in your town, to learn when to stay indoors or in the shade.

Why? Where you live, not the every-so-often beach vacation, determines most of your UV exposure — that lunchtime stroll, children's school recess or ball practice. UVA can even penetrate window glass. UV levels vary from state to state, even day to day, because of things like altitude, cloud cover and ozone.

"Sunscreen is imperfect," warns Dr. Nancy Thomas, a dermatologist at the University of North Carolina who led the UV research. "Schedule activities when UV irradiation is not quite so high."

Melanoma is the most lethal skin cancer. It will strike almost 60,000 Americans this year, and kill some 8,100. Cases have been on the rise for three decades, and while it usually strikes in the 40s or 50s, doctors are seeing ever-younger cases, occasionally even in children.

Scientists are studying the interaction of genes and UV exposure in melanoma patients in the U.S. and Australia — and initial results suggest staying in the shade in early life is even more important than previously realized.

Thomas analyzed tumor genes from 214 melanoma patients now living in North Carolina. Colleagues at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., used satellite data to track average UV radiation — encompassing both UVA and UVB rays — in the different towns and states where those patients had lived at birth, age 10, age 20 and so on.

The result: Patients with the most common known melanoma mutations, called BRAF mutations, also had the highest UV exposure by age 20. Interestingly, they also had the most moles, another important melanoma risk factor.

What does that mean? It's not clear yet, but young, rapidly growing skin may be particularly vulnerable to damaging UV rays, especially as moles are developing, Thomas says. Or maybe early childhood sun exposure spurs moles to develop in the first place.

While sun exposure for young adults played some role, too, the association with BRAF disappeared at age 30.

But that isn't a license for adults to sunbathe: Another melanoma subtype, characterized by mutations in a gene called NRAS, is strongly linked to UV exposure by age 50, the study found.

Here's the problem: Until recently, sunscreens have filtered out mostly UVB rays that cause sunburns, not UVA rays, meaning people who depended only on sunscreen to prevent skin cancer may have gotten a false sense of security.

Today, many sunscreens promise "broad-spectrum" protection against UVA rays, too. But the government doesn't yet have testing requirements in place to prove that UVA protection.

The term broad-spectrum "means nothing. Anybody can make that claim," says a frustrated Dr. Darrell Rigel of New York University, a past president of the American Academy of Dermatology, which has long pushed to change that.

The soon-to-come FDA proposal will keep the SPF, or "sun protection factor," ratings on sunscreen bottles that refer only to UVB protection — but add a UVA rating, too, says Shuren.

Until then, dermatologist Rigel has some advice:

_Use enough sunscreen. An adult needs the equivalent of a full shot glass, and a young child a good tablespoon-full. Most people put on too thin a coat to get good UVB coverage, much less whatever UVA protection a brand might offer.

_While official recommendations say wear at least an SPF-15 sunscreen daily, a super-high SPF will counter some of the thin-coat problem.

_Products with the ingredient Helioplex — a more sun-stable mix of the sunscreen ingredients avobenzone and oxybenzone — seem to provide longer-lasting UVA protection, although they can be more expensive. Another certified anti-UVA ingredient, Mexoryl, currently is sold only in sunscreen-containing moisturizer in the U.S.; it has long been sold in Europe.

_Apply sunscreen a half-hour before going outside. It takes that long to start working.

_And limit exposure during the peak UV hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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This thread turns to global warming and politics in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

Guess I should stay inside until I'm 18 huh?

I did nothing but run around shirtless in the sun in my youth. Now I hate it, but I figure it's just because of global warming and it's so and humid here in Florida.

lol! I was thinking the same thing

In a related study, it was determined that kids who stay inside too much become obese, have deteriorating eyesight from watching television, and go on gun rampages from playing video games.... gee, kids today are just screwed I guess...

Were turning kids into whimps, keep them inside, watch out for germs, dont play in the woods masquitos, tic, common, get outside & work off those calories and fat. I'd rather die from things outside than rot to death sitting in front of the TV.

put some sun block on them and set them outside, let them play in the dirt, kids are inside so much now, thier bodies never get a chance to build up emunity from things that are outside,

Ok my .02

I don't think this thread has anything to do with global warming..just a reminder to everyone that has little ones such as Lee and others..just figured I'd share the story with everyone.

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put some sun block on them

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And if you dont have any, you can allways use mudd

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And if you dont have any, you can allways use mudd

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Thats right....LOL....as kids we use to play down at the creek all day, that mud & dirty all over us, the sun couldnt penatrate our skin...Heck soap & water didnt always work, I remember my mom spraying us down with the grarden hose and we had to remove all our cloths before going in the house, always wondered if the laps around the house naked were really needed to dry us off, but hey the boys got some air.....

LMFAO!!!!!!! Oh memories

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as kids we use to play down at the creek all day,

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Unsupervised? OMG, I'm calling social services...

And in the mud!!! My goodness what will they think of next.

In regards to "outside/inside" as DC has mentioned,is heart disease and obesity any better than skin cancer?

I mean,does this study advocate kids stay inside? Or,sit under a tree and read a book?
Look,kids play.They play,baseball,softball,soccer,football,basketball,all OUTSIDE! Ride bikes,roller blade,skate board,all OUTSIDE!

Now I've got news for people who "conduct these studies". I'm more willing to risk a slight risk of skin cancer for the positive results of kids learning the team concept,getting socialy adjusted playing with others, being more healthy and closer to their normal weight. Than I am to have an isolated child living in some "video game fantasy land" who is obese and has very poor skills at interracting with other people their own age on a daily basis.

My grandkids go to the park every day right after an early lunch and play most of the day. Here,they have a lady who is the "park coordinator" who has projects and arts and crafts for the kids and watches their activities.

The only sad part about that is,she's told me she never hardly ever sees some of the kids parents or grandparents. That some of the children don't even have a clue where their parents are most of the time. She finds it nice that she knows myself,my daughter and my son in law. And that we stop in and check on them periodicly throughout the day. We have also furnished her with our phone numbers for emergency purposes.

But kids need to play,get out and stay healthy. And God knows,no matter what you do,somebody will tell you how dangerous it is. Looking at the odds,I'll risk the sun over many of the risks of staying indoors for my family.

JMHO

I say parent need to start cracking down on lazy kids. Start taking away privleges until they start playing outside. Outside is addictive once you find something you like. Maybe at least try to go out for a sport for your school or other recreational things. Pit I absolutely agree Id rather my child have a tiny bit of skin cancer then become overweight, lazy and have no friends.

The rule in this household?
When the weather is suitable for outside activities...................no TV or video games before 8:00 P.M.

Ouch! but it would be good for them in the long run.

It's not really as bad as it sounds. You have rainy days. Days in the 90's with high humidity etc.... that are not conditions I feel "proper to MANDATE outside play".

So there are quite a few times they can play. And,being summer vacation,they are allowed to stay up late. So they can still play video games quite a bit. But it does help insure some balance to each of them.

That's all one can hope for. That by the time they're grown,that they're healthy,well rounded individuals.

And not unhealthy round people.

I hate overweight kids. They are lazy and do nothing but sit inside playing violent video games.

It's not that he would "get wet" DC. It was the "manner" in which he was getting wet! You don't get that?


And sorry DC,but with six kids around here,your rules have to be fairly consistant and steadfast. Or I'd need a stop watch and a legal pad to keep up with who's coming and who's going!

I dont have all overweight kids. Just the ones that dont play sports. We need those overweight kids to protect the skinny kids asses

What drives me crazy is when I see an obviously overweight parent encouraging their normal sized child to over eat and continue the viscious cylce of obesity in families.

I know what you mean - about playing outside in what my wife calls "bad" weather. Big deal about the weather. My daughter and I look forward to rainy days so we can ride 4 wheelers in the mud, and it drives my wife crazy.

Too cold outside? Not if you're dressed right, and we've had some great times playing outside during a "blizzard". Just this year my daughter and I got my car stuck, pulled it out with the Hummer, put the car away, got my atv stuck, pulled it out the the Hummer, and later that evening we got the Hummer stuck and had to call my neighbor over to pull us out. In between we were building snow tunnels, having "snow" fights (too cold to make snowballs)..........my wife was upset that I was teaching bad things to my daughter.......like what? Playing outside? (my daughter used the tow rope to hook up the atv by herself!!!)

Hot, cold, get outside and move around. Getting dirty is half the fun.

I remember when I was a 5th grader. This kid was a 11 year old and he weighed 300 lbs!!! He was so pudgy and I was told he was not allowed to play in gym and he could barely walk at all! His parents were just as bad his mother weighed 290 lbs and his dad weighed 450 lbs. Now that I think back on it why in the hell did his parents let him get so big?!? Poor guy probably is dead now

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So if you visit,bring your sun screen.

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Can I bring a cooler full of ice cold beer?

I have two kids. One is overweight while the other is way too skinny. The one that is overweight Plays football, wrestling. basketball, baseball and his one off month from organized sports, he golfs. He doesn't eat many sweets and only drinks water with the occasional Gatorade. My comment was because of the many generalizations I read about kids. It is unhealthy for them to be inside all the time and i would never let him get away with it, If he wanted to.

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Can I bring a cooler full of ice cold beer?

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nothing says WELCOME any better..........

I agree about the generalizations. That's why I tried to clarify it in my previous post. My oldest grandaughter plays basketball,softball and swims. She goes to the YMCA as do all of the kids,but she's the one who goes the most. Very talented and athletic.

I have known many people on the heavy side that are extremly active and healthy. I think some people's metabolizm are just different than others. Because these kids all eat about the same. And that consists of very little junk food. Two are pretty skinny. Two are average build and two a little on the heavy side.

But I feel the key to good health is physical excercise and a decent diet. They all get that and to me,that's the most critical factors.