Summer sunshine could bring harmful damage to skin

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - The next seven days have mostly sunshine in the long term weather forecast. This could bring concern to our skin if we don't use protection.

Any time the sun is able to show itself away from the clouds, it is able to cause damage to the skin. It isn't through the visible sunlight itself, but it shoots out harmful UV rays. The ozone layer blocks out these UV rays but only partially. The best thing to see how powerful the sun can be is to look at the UV forecast. Weather forecasters determine how bad the UV will be on a scale from 1 to 10 and it mainly depends on how much sunshine the area is expecting today.

Sunscreen is the best way to protect yourself from the sun. All sunscreen containers usually state the amount of SPF that they have. The higher SPF, the greater protection the sunscreen will have.

Idaho Falls Dematologist Cameron French recommends using 30 SPF and above sunscreen at least once every two hours outdoors. This includes putting on sunscreen 30 minutes before going outside too.

"One reason is to apply it early 30 minutes before you go out is because it needs chance to absorb into your skin. So then if you're out and you're sweating or you go into the water, you know they say it's only like gives you 80 minutes of protection in the water and you need to reapply is because of that reason.  It just washes out."