Sunburn? It’s just an inevitable price of summer for us Britons

TOO MANY Britons see sunburn as an inevitable price of summer, leading skin doctors have said.

The British Association of Dermatologists said with a “bit of care” people can enjoy the sun without suffering damage to their skin.

The comments come as a new poll from the professional body found that a third (35 per cent) of Britons had been sunburnt in the last year.

Of those, 28 per cent had been burnt three times or more.

One in 40 of those surveyed admitted to getting burnt more than seven times in the UK in the last 12 months

The survey of more than 2,000 British adults was carried out to mark the association’s Sun Awareness Week.

It found that the most common factors behind sunburn included people not realising how strong the sun was, failing to reapply sunscreen after long periods and not reapplying sunscreen after sweating or swimming.

Dr Nick Levell, president of the British Association of Dermatologists, said: “British people are increasingly well informed about sun protection and seem to understand the risks of sunburn.

“However, it’s proving to be a long and slow road to actually changing how we, as a culture, look after ourselves in the sun.

“Too many people are ready to laugh off sunburn as the inevitable price of enjoying the summer, but it shouldn’t be.

“It’s possible to enjoy the sun, and summer, without suffering sun damage; it just takes a bit of care.

“Particularly shocking is the small, but not insignificant, proportion of the population who seem to be ‘super burners’.

“It’s far from ideal for anyone to get sunburnt, but there are people out there who are reporting being burnt seven, eight, nine, 10, or even 11 times a year, both in the UK and abroad.

Dr Levell added: “These people are really putting their lives at risk and need to think about how they can change their behaviour to prevent sunburn.”

Sunburn is a form of radiation burn and is the leading cause of skin tumours.