• Question: why do you get sunburnt?

    Asked by stephthegreat to Katherine on 9 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Katherine Haxton

      Katherine Haxton answered on 9 Mar 2012:

      Me personally, because I’m Scottish so I have fair skin and freckles, but anyone really can get sunburn particularly very pale skin. There’s not much melanin(a pigment which gives skin colour) in pale skin to protect it from the sun’s UV rays. This is a good thing because it means the body can make vitamin D from a smaller amount of sun, but a bad thing too because you end up sunburned every summer. I’m bad at remembering to put on the suncream.

Comments

  • Photo: Darren

    Darren commented on :

    I actually studied this during my PhD, so this is one question I feel qualified to answer!

    The ultraviolet rays from the sun is a type of radiation that can break the DNA in our skin (this can lead to skin cancer if it happens too often). If you are dark skinned, the pigment protects your DNA pretty well. But if you are pale skinned like me, then strong sunlight goes straight through the tissue and causes damage. The cells of your skin respond to this damage by by becoming inflamed (hot and sensitive) and your body increases the bloodflow to the skin to help new cells grow. This is called “erythema” and results in your skin turning red within a few hours.

    So sunburn is actually the response of your body to try and fix the damage done by the sun’s rays. As Katherine says, the best idea is to avoid the damage in the first place by using sunscreen.