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Sun and sunburn
Whenever you’re out in the sun, UV radiation will pass deep into your skin’s layers and cause damage. If you stay in the sun long enough, UV radiation burns your skin, causing it to release chemicals that cause your blood vessels to expand and leak fluids. This is what causes inflammation, pain and redness.
Your skin will go red within two to six hours of being burnt and it may keep getting redder for the next few days. Remember - a sunburn may fade but the damage to your skin lasts a lifetime.
UV radiation
Without protection, UV radiation (both UVA and UVB) will immediately start to penetrate deep into the layers of your skin, damaging the skin's cells.
UVA radiation penetrates deep into the skin, affecting the living skin cells that lie under your skin's surface. UVA causes long-term damage like wrinkles, blotchiness, sagging and discoloration, and also contributes to skin cancer.
UVB radiation penetrates the top layer of skin and is the main cause of skin tanning and sunburn.
Suntanning and sunburn – increasing skin cancer risk
All types of sun tanning and sunburn cause permanent and irreversible damage to your skin. Your skin cancer risk increases as skin damage builds up every year. The amount of sun tanning or number of severe sunburns you have received, especially during childhood, increases your risk of developing skin cancer, melanoma being the most dangerous.
Danger times for skin damage and sunburn
It doesn’t need to be hot for you to get sunburnt. In South Australia, UV radiation levels are highest from September until April during the middle of the day, between 10am and 3pm. It doesn’t take long to get burnt either! On a fine January day in Australia, you can get burnt in less than 15 minutes. Protect your skin in five ways - slip on some sun protective clothing, slop on some SPF30+ sunscreen, slap on a hat, seek shade, slide on some sunglasses!
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Prevention & early detection 
